Happy Thursday everyone and welcome to this week's edition of Wired Parents.

This week we're examining platform regulation, what happens when governments try to change how platforms work rather than who can access them. The timing couldn't be better. Australia just discovered regulation is harder than it sounds, issuing an urgent ultimatum to Roblox after age verification failed to prevent child grooming despite the platform being exempted from the under-16 social media ban. Spain announced a completely different enforcement model, making executives personally criminally liable rather than just fining companies, which explains why Musk's response was so different this time. And 18 countries are testing enforcement approaches simultaneously to see which actually work.

Part 3 of our series explores the tradeoff nobody talks about when it comes to platform regulation, why compliance costs might eliminate the competition that drives safety improvements and what this means for protecting children without consolidating power with exactly the platforms causing the problems.

There's a lot to unpack, so grab a coffee and settle in.

As always, get in touch if there's anything you'd like us to cover. Till next week,

—Heidi

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Eighteen countries and entities are now implementing or actively studying social media restrictions for children, with 2026 emerging as the year governments experiment with enforcement models to see which actually work.

Already passed or taking effect in 2026:

Announced bans: Spain (under-16), Slovenia (under-15), Greece (under-15), Denmark (under-15), Norway (under-15).

Actively studying:

EU Parliament voted in November for a non-legislative report recommending minimum age 16 across the bloc, with 13-15 allowed with parental consent, plus bans on infinite scrolling and autoplay.

US states: At least nine states enacted legislation (Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas), though most face legal challenges over First Amendment violations, with Arkansas and Ohio already permanently blocked by courts.

Every government is testing different enforcement models simultaneously, from corporate fines (Australia) to criminal liability (Spain) to device-level controls (China), with 2026 as the global experiment to determine what actually works.

Find out more over at Wired-Parents.com

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The big story from this week is that following Australia's ban on under-16s accessing Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok in December, Communications Minister Anika Wells has now issued an urgent ultimatum to Roblox executives, calling the situation "untenable" and demanding immediate answers about reports of children as young as four being sexually groomed on the platform. Roblox has since agreed to meet.

Wells sent a letter to Roblox on February 9 expressing "grave concern" about children being exposed to graphic, sexually explicit, and suicidal material. She cited recent criminal charges involving the grooming of hundreds of Australian children across platforms including Roblox, with systemic issues persisting despite safety discussions with the eSafety Commissioner throughout 2024 and 2025.

The minister challenged Roblox's "PG" rating, writing to the Classification Board to question whether the 2018 assessment remains appropriate given reports of "graphic and gratuitous" user-generated content. The government is now pushing for transparency on Roblox's age assurance processes and current restrictions preventing adults from contacting minors.

Roblox was exempted from Australia's under-16 social media ban that took effect December 10, alongside Discord, WhatsApp, and Lego Play, while Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok were banned, meaning Australia is now urgently targeting the gaming platform it specifically exempted.

Roblox implemented facial age verification in Australia in December 2025, restricting chat to narrow age windows to prevent child grooming, but age verification didn't solve the problem.

Wells said the failures highlighted the necessity of a "digital duty of care" that would legally shift responsibility onto platforms to proactively ensure user safety, with Roblox having ~100 million daily users and 40% of 2024 users under 13. Australia's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said her office will now directly test Roblox's implementation of its nine safety commitments, with potential fines of up to $49.5 million if the platform is found non-compliant when new online safety codes take effect on March 9.

The full story explores what happens when gaming platforms emerge as the next battleground →

When Australia banned social media for under-16s, Meta sent a press release. But when Spain proposed criminal liability for platform executives, Elon Musk called the Prime Minister "a tyrant and traitor" then escalated to "fascist totalitarian."

The difference? Jail time versus corporate fines.

Spain announced on February 3 that platform executives could face criminal prosecution for failing to remove illegal content. Within 24 hours, Musk responded with profane personal attacks posted publicly on the platform being regulated.

Spain is coordinating with five unnamed European nations in what Sánchez called a "coalition of the digitally willing" to enforce cross-border criminal liability for executives.

Why is Musk's response so different this time? The full analysis explains what criminal liability means for platform leaders →

Over four weeks, we're examining every major approach to protecting children from social media.

Week 1: Government bans like Australia's. What they protect. What they require.

Week 2: Parental opt-out. What it covers. What it doesn't.

Week 3 (now live): Platform regulation. What it can change. What it can't.

Week 4: Why no single approach solves everything and what your options are.

Instead of banning children or relying on parents to say no, what if we regulate platform design itself?

Countries worldwide are trying variations, but there's a tradeoff most people haven't considered, and this week's Roblox news from Australia shows why regulation is harder than it sounds.

Read part 3 of our mini series to find it →

Next week: How to choose between banning, allowing, or regulating social media for your family. Understanding the tradeoffs, including mental health risks, privacy concerns, and social limitations, helps you decide what's right for your children and your family.

If you missed earlier parts:

Read Part One: When Governments Ban Social Media for Children →

Read Part Two: Why Saying No to Social Media Only Protects Your Child →

🇬🇧 UK government urges parents to talk about harmful content
The UK has launched a campaign, “You Won’t Know Until You Ask”, encouraging parents to initiate conversations with their children about toxic online material. The initiative aims to help families recognise harmful content and develop practical safety strategies, starting with pilot programmes in Yorkshire and the Midlands. Similar discussions are underway about expanding age restrictions, inspired by policies in countries like Australia.

📜 Research challenges ban rationale
A University of Manchester study tracking 25,000+ pupils aged 11-14 over three school years found no evidence that time spent on social media or gaming causes anxiety or depression. "The story is far more complex than that," said lead author Dr Qiqi Cheng, with co-author Professor Neil Humphrey adding that young people's choices around social media may be shaped by how they're feeling, not the other way around. The findings, published in the Journal of Public Health, suggest bans targeting screen time alone may not deliver the mental health benefits governments are promising.

🇪🇺 EU accuses TikTok of DSA violations over design features
The European Commission preliminarily found TikTok in breach of the Digital Services Act on February 6, accusing the platform of purposefully designing its app to be addictive through infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and its personalised recommendation system. The Commission said these features shift users' brains into "autopilot mode" and drive compulsive use, particularly among minors, and that TikTok's existing screen time tools are too easy to dismiss to be effective. TikTok faces fines of up to 6% of global annual turnover if the preliminary findings are confirmed, and may be required to change the basic design of its service. The case marks the first time regulators have targeted how a platform is built rather than what it hosts.

🎮 Discord expanding age checks to all users worldwide from March
Discord announced it will extend its age assurance measures globally from March 2026, restricting all new and existing users to a "teen-appropriate" account by default until they complete age verification through a video selfie or government ID. The measures came into effect for Australian users in September 2025 ahead of the under-16 social media ban, but will now apply worldwide. Discord, like Roblox, was exempted from Australia's December ban, and the move suggests platforms outside the ban are responding to regulatory pressure without waiting to be included.