IHEM External Speaker Series: Anja Stevic & Angela Lee

Title of the talk: The World's First Social Media Age Restriction: Evaluating Australia's Social Media Minimum Age Act and Its Impact on Young People and Families

External Speakers: Anja Stevic & Angela Lee (Stanford Social Media Lab)

Anja Stevic is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford's Social Media Lab, where her research focuses on digital pressure and social media use among adolescents, mobile communication, and AI-mediated communication. She completed her PhD in Communication Science at the University of Vienna, where her doctoral work examined how smartphone use across generations shapes interpersonal relationships and psychological well-being. 

Beyond her own research, Anja has recently been involved in high-profile policy work: together with Angela, she is part of the Stanford SML team appointed by Australia's eSafety Commissioner to evaluate the impact of Australia's social media minimum age law.

Angela Lee is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Stanford's Social Media Lab whose work investigates the effects of emerging media on digital well-being, with a particular focus on young people, families, and diverse communities. She is especially interested in the psychological mechanisms by which social technologies shape health, development, and intergenerational relationships, and will join the University of Wisconsin-Madison as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2026.

Abstract

On December 10, 2025, Australia became the first country in the world to implement a legislated social media minimum age (SMMA) requirement, preventing young people under 16 from holding accounts on ten age-restricted platforms. In the months that followed, a number of countries moved to adopt comparable measures, signaling a broader global shift in how governments are choosing to regulate children's digital lives.

This policy represents an unprecedented natural experiment and a rare opportunity to examine what actually happens when institutional authority intervenes in young people's social media participation at national scale.

This talk presents the study design and pre-registration plan of a large-scale mixed-methods evaluation of the SMMA Act 2024. The study draws on five-wave longitudinal surveys with over 4,000 young people aged 10 to 16 and their parents, opt-in passive smartphone tracking, linked health and educational records, and in-depth qualitative interviews and focus groups. Together, these data streams are designed to capture how young people are responding to the legislation, how their digital practices are shifting over time, and what consequences — intended and unintended — are emerging for their psychological, social, and physical wellbeing.

The talk will engage three interconnected lines of inquiry. First, a behavioral question: are young people adhering with the SMMA policy, finding ways around it, or developing new patterns of digital engagement altogether? Second, a relational question: how are parents and caregivers navigating their role in domestic enforcement, and what pressures does this place on family dynamics? Third, a theoretical question: what is the relationship between imposed digital restriction and youth wellbeing more broadly?

The presentation will situate Australia's legislation within the wider international turn toward age-based social media regulation, with relevance for legislators, researchers, and practitioners across Europe who are actively weighing similar policy responses.