What you need to know:

• Australia’s two main parties are committed to raising the age threshold for social media access, but brands have been conspicuously silent. Only Hyundai has so far backed the 36 Months campaign pushing for 16 to be the new minimum age.
• But 36 Months co-architects, Rob Galluzzo and Greg Attwells, say the pace has picked up now that the government is viewing it through health settings. “We have the opportunity to set this new age gate up for Australian youth…as soon as we understand that it is part of a health issue and that the prefrontal cortexes of children – they’re not formed yet,” says Galluzzo.
• While brands are “waiting to see” where regulation lands, social media marketing veteran Katie Palmer-Rose suggests there is “no reticence” and that few are actively targeting young people, particularly pre-teens.
• Either way, she says it’s probably time to start to “think very differently about how they show up in social media, how they build communities and connectedness in a digital world that doesn’t live in social media” at least for younger teens.
• 36 Months co-architects, Rob Galluzzo and Greg Attwells, claim more brands are about to back the campaign – “three or four” potentially this week.
• They argue that 116,000 signatures, 95 per cent of which are women and predominantly mums, i.e. prized primary household purchase decision-makers, pose a test of customer-centricity for marketers.
• “You’d be surprised how many brands have called us and are really wanting to get involved,” per Galluzzo. The same can’t be said for the platforms.
• Palmer-Rose and Galluzzo were speaking as part of a five-strong podcast panel, alongside ex-Facebook ANZ boss Liam Walsh (read his take here); the Principal of NSW all-girls private school, Kincoppal-Rose Bay, Erica Thomas (get her deeply concerned view from the coalface here); and Greg Attwells, a director at 36 Months, a campaign group pushing for the minimum age for social media access to be raised to 16. 
• There’s much more in the podcast. Get the full download here.

Tipping point

Katie Palmer-Rose has been in social media marketing since 2007, the year Facebook launched in Australia. Given the nature of her business, it’s unsurprising Palmer-Rose “a huge proponent of influences – the right influences”. But even she’s in favour of a ban for under 16s – and she thinks it’s a reality brands will need to adjust to. Potentially quite rapidly.

Palmer-Rose says negative pressure on girls to be perfect – as witnessed daily by Erica Thomas, Principal of all-girls private school Kincoppal-Rose Bay – is all too real.

“There’s a big trend … of very young girls, aged 10, 11, 12, having a very big interest in skincare – but adult skincare for their skin that has not yet developed, and that does not need these products. That has been a direct link from social media and the influence and impact that it’s had in that space,” she says.

“I’m a big proponent for having to draw a line somewhere, but I’m more of a proponent for how we responsibly engage in this social media space, and I think brands need to be very, very responsible for that as well. And I think that this discussion that we’re having [around banning social media for teens] is a reaction to a societal imbalance. We’ve reached a point where it’s not working for us.”

Pressed, Palmer-Rose agrees with the call by campaign group 36 Months and others for the minimum age for social media access to be raised to 16. She says brands are not actively targeting younger kids.

“We’re not seeing brands come to us and say, ‘We want to get those 10 year olds, we want to get those 11 year olds’ … You want to make your brand relevant for Gen Z, but there is openness and appetite to do that in a responsible and effective way.”

Brands silent

Yet brands and marketers, which in the past have not been shy in talking about purpose and flaunting ESG credentials, have to date been quiet on the campaign and proposed ban. Only Hyundai has officially joined 36 Months, though Rob Galluzzo and Greg Attwells, two of the driving forces behind the campaign, which to date has attracted 116,000 signatures, suggest there are more about to break cover.

“There’s probably three or four [brands] that we’re having conversations with that will officially come on board in the next week,” claims Attwells.

“Obviously, the issue is related to teenagers, but the movement is a parent movement, and 95 per cent of those 116,000 petition signers are women, according to our data. So this is a mum community, and these are the primary decision makers for family and household purchases.”

In other words, the people that marketers in many categories tend to prize most highly. So why the silence?

“Brands, at the moment, are waiting to see where this lands. There is not a reticence for this,” suggests Palmer-Rose.

“Brands, I think, will emerge in a very positive, strong and supportive way … [A teen ban] does not mean that you will not be able to ultimately engage younger consumers. You just need to look at how you create different ways, different platforms, of interaction that are going to still foster that sense of community and connectedness that aren’t necessarily in social media,” she adds.

“The very best creators now don’t rely only on the platforms for their engagement and their audience interaction, and I think that’s a huge opportunity for brands as well,” per Palmer-Rose.

She says marketers now face the prospect of a “moment in time where they tend to think very differently about how they show up in social media, how they build communities and connectedness in a digital world that doesn’t live in social media.”

Ultimately, “something needs to be done – there is an imbalance, it’s like runaway train that we’re trying to grapple with. So we need to create some change”, she adds.

“From my perspective, particularly for commercial influencer marketing, social media [marketing] for brands, I’m really excited about more regulation.”

Customer-centricity test?

36 Months co-architect, Rob Galluzzo, backs Palmer-Rose’s view. He rejects suggestions that bands appear to be ducking responsibility for social media’s negative impacts on teen wellbeing and development, despite creating a $1.3tn platform in Meta alone entirely via their ad dollars in the pursuit of engagement, and ultimately profit.

“I think you’d be surprised how many brands are really interested in, not just doing the right thing, but they really see the value for society in this. And I think they’re putting Australia and society before their profits. They really are ­– that’s the conversations we’re having.”

It cuts to the core of customer-centricity, seemingly a cornerstone of modern brand marketing, he suggests.

“If a brand says ‘customers are the most important thing to us’, well, acting on the thing that’s most important to their customers is probably the next thing that they should probably look at doing,” adds Galluzzo.

(Others – like ex-Facebook Australia and New Zealand boss, Liam Walsh – argue that teenagers are also major stakeholders in the decision, that a ban would literally cut off their networks overnight, and that Australia is perhaps ill prepared for what would follow on day two. He suggests regulating and dumbing down algorithms might be a more surgical intervention – though 36 Months’ Galluzzo and Attwells, and Kincoppal-Rose Bay Principal Erica Thomas, argue that would only address some of the harms, versus raising the age threshold. “I’d like to see both happen,” per Thomas.)

Galluzzo suggests brands would be required to recalibrate rather than rebuild youth strategies from scratch.

“This is not ‘wipe everything out’. It’s how do we maybe re engage in a different way, in a healthier way, in a better way, in a safer way? That’s all it is,” he says. “And I think you’d be surprised how many brands have called us and are really wanting to get involved.”

The same can’t be said for the platforms – and Galluzzo expects big tech’s lobbying machine to go into overdrive.

“Just to be clear, we have reached out to them [the social platforms], of course, because we’re looking for any solve. And pretty much the answer is, ‘don’t talk’. They don’t want their employees to talk to anyone from 36 Months at all,” he says. “Stonewall is not a good way to engage with us.”

Health issue

Galluzzo says while there are pros and cons to social media, the mission of 36 Months is “very contained” to raising the age threshold of social media citizenship to 16.

“We’re not going to solve for everything but…we have the opportunity to set this new age gate up for Australian youth…as soon as we understand that it is part of a health issue and that the prefrontal cortexes of children – they’re not formed yet,” he says. “When you realise that this is a health issue, I don’t think we can slow down, I don’t think we can wait. And I love the fact that a sovereign state wants to protect Australians. I think moving quickly, knowing that it is a health issue, is very important.

“If we can just say that from 13 to 16, it is too young to … set yourself up with an online persona, sign a deal and a contract with these social media networks that gives away all of your data and, most importantly, allows you to set up and to show the world who you are before you know who you are.

Galluzzo wants to “make sure” it stays in the world of public health: “This is not a cyber issue; this is not something to take our time with,” he says. “This is something that is obviously dangerous. You can have [social media] pros and cons, but it’s definitely dangerous for 13, 14, 15 year olds. I’ve got dozens and dozens of examples that would make your hair curl. So let’s keep this in the health space, get some change happening, and make sure it’s very on point and very specific.”

Over to marketers, government… and lawyers.

Katie Palmer-Rose and Rob Galluzzo were speaking as part of a five-strong podcast panel, alongside ex-Facebook ANZ boss Liam Walsh; the Principal of NSW all-girls private school, Kincoppal-Rose Bay, Erica Thomas; and Greg Attwells, a director at 36 Months a campaign pushing for the minimum age for social media access to be raised to 16. 

There’s much more in the podcast. Get the full download here.