Rebuilding the ecosystem around adolescence.
Social media platforms set 13 as the minimum age in 2006 – before smartphones, before algorithmic feeds, and before the evidence of harm accumulated. Nearly two decades later, that number had never been revisited. The challenge was to change it. With no government mandate and no institutional authority, the brief was to build enough public will and political pressure to force a legislative response in Australia, against platforms with every commercial incentive to resist.
We built a brand on hope, not fear. Social platforms target teens in their most vulnerable moments. Individual parenting cannot compete with systems designed to exploit adolescent vulnerability at scale. The issue was elevated from a communications debate to a public health crisis. The ask was simple: raise the age to 16. A petition made public sentiment undeniable. Real families were given a voice. Lived experience in the face of loss moves people, and policymakers, in ways that data cannot. Australia became the first country in the world to legislate a minimum age of 16 for social media. The 36 Months brand and campaign generated 147,000 petition signatures, 3,270 news stories, and 2.3 billion media impressions. After a monumental win against big tech, the UK, New Zealand, Japan, and the EU have initiated comparable reforms citing Australia as the precedent. A timely reminder that design can truly change the world for the better.
