A new Australian study is adding more weight to the argument against social media. And it’s even revealing how just how much social media is too much for teenagers. Research led by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute found that adolescents who spent at least two hours a day on social media were more likely to experience depressive symptoms and poorer wellbeing one year later than those who used social platforms for less than one hour a day.

The study does not prove that social media directly caused those mental health problems. But the link is notable because the research followed young people over time instead of just relying on data from a short-term study.

Early adolescence looks like the danger zone

The study followed almost 1,200 children in Melbourne from age nine to 19 as part of the Child to Adult Transition Study. Researchers collected annual data on social media use and mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, and self-harm. The strongest association was noted in girls aged 12 to 13, which researchers describe as a critical window for intervention. Dr Nandi Vijayakumar of MCRI and Deakin University said early adolescence stood out as a period when heavier social media use was linked to a greater risk of mental health problems one year later.

Ages 12 and 13 are often when phones, social apps, peer pressure, and other factors start crashing into each other at once. So even a modest rise in risk can matter when millions of young people are exposed to the same platforms every day.

Why simply deleting every app doesn’t help

In the study, researchers were also careful not to flatten the issue entirely. Social media can help some teenagers with belonging, finding self-expression, and building support systems through friendships, which is also crucial for young people who may not easily find those communities offline. At the same time, high usage can also mean more exposure to cyberbullying, harmful content, and social comparisons that can lead to sleep disruption and pressure to stay available.

Professor Susan Sawyer from MCRI said the results do not show social media is universally harmful, but they do support age-appropriate limits, better digital literacy, and clearer parental guidance. Professor Susan Sawyer from MCRI stated that the results do not show that social media is universally harmful. But the group does support age-appropriate limits, along with better digital literacy and clearer parental guidance.

The findings also arrive as governments continue to debate age restrictions and platform rules for young users. Australia has already introduced world-first social media age restrictions, and MCRI and Deakin University are separately studying how those changes affect teens’ phone use and mental health.

Over the months, many countries have announced plans to restrict social media access for children and teens. Australia became the first to implement such measures at the end of last year, setting a precedent that other countries are now closely watching. 

Australia’s regulations, along with other countries’ proposals, aim to reduce the pressures and risks that young users may face on social media, which include cyberbullying, addiction, mental health issues, and exposure to predators. 

Of course, there are concerns about privacy regarding invasive age verification and excessive government intervention. Critics, including Amnesty Tech, have said such bans are ineffective and that they ignore the realities of younger generations. Despite this, many nations are moving ahead with proposed legislation. 

We’ve compiled a list of countries that are considering or have already moved forward with bans on social media for young users.

Australia

Australia became the world’s first country to ban social media for children under 16 in December 2025. The ban blocks children from using Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, and Kick. It notably doesn’t include WhatsApp or YouTube Kids. 

The Australian government has said these social media companies must take steps to keep children off their services. Companies that fail to comply may face penalties of up to $49.5 million AUD ($34.4 million USD).

The government says these platforms should use multiple verification methods to ensure that people using their services are older than 16. It also notes that they can’t rely on users simply entering their own age. 

Austria

Austria said in late March that it will ban social media for children up to the age of 14. Draft legislation for the ban is expected to be finalized by June.

Canada

The Canadian government introduced a digital safety bill in June that would ban social media for children under 16. Under the legislation, social media giants could sidestep the ban if they demonstrate they have policies to protect young users. Officials have said it could take a year for the bill to pass.

Denmark

Denmark is set to ban social media platforms for children under 15. The Danish government announced in November 2025 that it had secured support for the ban from three governing coalition parties and two opposition parties in parliament.

The government’s plans could become law as soon as mid-2026, according to the Associated Press. The Danish digital affairs ministry is also launching a “digital evidence” app that includes age verification tools that may be used as part of the ban.

France

In late January, French lawmakers passed a bill that would ban social media for kids under 15. President Emmanuel Macron has supported the measure as a way to protect children from excessive screen time. 

The bill still has to get through the country’s Senate before a final vote in the lower house.

Germany

In early February, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives discussed a proposal to bar children under 16 from using social media, Reuters reported. However, there were signs that his center-left coalition partners were hesitant to support an outright ban.

Greece

Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced in April that the country is going to ban access to social media for children under 15 starting January 2027. Mitsotakis says the move is aimed at tackling rising anxiety and sleep problems among children, as well as the addictive design of social media.

Indonesia

Indonesia said in early March that it’s banning children under the age of 16 from using social media and other popular online platforms. The country plans to start with platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live, and Roblox.

Malaysia 

The Malaysian government said in November 2025 that it plans to ban social media for children under 16. The country plans to implement the ban this year. 

Poland

Poland’s ruling party is drafting new legislation that would ban children under 15 from using social media, Bloomberg reported in February.

Slovenia

Slovenia is drafting legislation to prohibit children under 15 from accessing social media, the country’s deputy prime minister announced in early February. The government wants to regulate social networks where content is shared, citing platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram.

Spain

Spain’s prime minister announced in early February that the country plans to ban social media for children under the age of 16. The ban still needs parliamentary approval. The Spanish government is also seeking to create a law that would make social media executives personally accountable for hate speech on their platforms.

Turkey

The Turkish parliament in April passed a bill to restrict social media access for children under 15. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan must now accept the bill for it to pass into law.

UK

The United Kingdom is weighing a ban on social media for children under 16. The government says it will consult parents, young people, and civil society for their views to determine whether a ban would be effective. 

It will also consider whether to require social media companies to limit or remove features that drive compulsive use, such as endless scrolling.

This story was originally published in February 2026 and is updated regularly with new information.

For years, our social media experiences have been dominated by Big Tech players like Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), Google (YouTube), Snapchat, TikTok, and X. But a growing number of startups are taking aim at these giants by building new, often smaller and more personal social networking experiences to connect people with friends, interests, and tighter-knit communities.

If you’re looking for a way to extricate yourself from the grip of traditional social media and Big Tech products in general, there are a number of interesting alternatives available. Many of them cater to Gen Z and younger, a group that’s often more willing to build their social networks within new spaces compared to people with well-established networks that sit on aging platforms.

Below are some of our favorites, all of which are worth a download.

Retro

Retro is a thoughtfully designed photo-sharing app focused on building connections with friends in a more private format. Created by two former Instagram team members, Nathan Sharp and Ryan Olson, the app offers simple ways to share photos with the people in your life who matter, as well as others that help you reconnect with your own memories. You can select certain photos to highlight every week, dump photos into albums, and find and follow others via search features. You also have your own user profile that includes privacy controls that allow you to choose which of your friends can see more than your most recent month’s worth of photos.

Retro: iOS/Android

Cosmos

Are you the creative type who’s sick of the AI slop on Pinterest? Another app, Cosmos, could offer an escape. Dubbed a “space for inspiration,” Cosmos allows you to search by color, keyword, or image, to shape a profile based on your taste. You can also follow friends and other tastemakers and collaborate with others on collections. Overall, the app is a bit more elevated than Pinterest, and it can also be used to shop for interesting products that match your style.

Cosmos: iOS/Android

Indigo

Looking to get off X but don’t know which decentralized social network to choose — Mastodon or Bluesky? Indigo’s app solves that problem by offering a single app where you can participate in both networks at once. The app offers a unified timeline and a composer that lets you cross-post to both services at once, access to your custom feeds, and tons of personalization tools and configuration settings. The app has some polish, having been co-created by Ben McCarthy, who also developed the Obscura line of apps and others, alongside freelance iOS designer Aaron Vegh.

Indigo: iOS only

Corner

Corner says it best, calling its app “Google Maps but social,” which is an apt description. The company has a growing community of some 125,000+ users who curate their favorite places both locally and abroad into lists that they can “gatekeep” or make public for others to discover. With a definite Gen Z vibe, this isn’t just a place to find “good restaurants near me,” but to uncover unique lists, like those focused on where you can find the best dumplings, queer nightlife, live jazz spots, places to dance that aren’t clubs, indie bookshops, and anything else you want to categorize, organize, and recommend. The app also provides a personalized map where you can view your favorite places, those you want to try, other people’s suggestions, and more. It’s like Google Maps if someone from 2026 designed it.

Corner: iOS only

Divine

If you’re still missing Vine (thanks a lot, Twitter), you’ll want to download the reboot called Divine. Enterprising developer Evan Henshaw-Plath, an early Twitter employee, imported the Vine archive into his team’s new app, which aims to offer a home for short-form video creators. The app hosts roughly 500,000 videos from nearly 100,000 original Vine creators and allows users to make their own six-second videos once again. Several early Vine creators have returned to the app, as well, like Lele Pons, JimmyHere, MightyDuck, and Jack and Jack, among others. The project also has financial backing from Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey’s nonprofit, “and Other Stuff,” which aims to back open source social projects.

Divine: iOS/Android/Web

Mesh

While not exactly a social network in the sense that it’s a platform for connecting directly, Mesh is a helpful tool to throw into your lineup of networking apps. The app is something like an address book on steroids, as it lets you track what people in your network — personal, professional, and otherwise — have been up to, by tracking LinkedIn or X bio changes, posts, publications, and more. Plus, Mesh provides tools allowing you to reach out and reconnect on a cadence you configure, somewhat like a personal CRM. Acquired by WordPress.com owner Automattic in 2025 (when it was then known as Clay), Mesh plans to offer deeper integrations with Automattic’s universal messaging app, Beeper — which, by the way, you should download too.

Mesh: iOS/Desktop/Web

Fable

Book club community app Fable recently got an upgrade that makes it worth another look, even if it’s not your main book tracker. The company is now offering a bundled service with digital reading subscription provider Everand (as they’re both owned by Scribd), which offers access to 1.5 million ebooks and audiobooks from the major publishers and more. Your ratings and reviews then sync over to Fable, where you can also see the recommendations from others and join virtual book clubs. Goodreads who?

To be fair, there are so many book trackers to choose from these days that it’s hard to narrow things down. I personally also enjoy Bookshelf, Reading Journey (which has a great widget), Margins, TBR, and PageBound, but there are even more! We truly have a wealth of choices in this space, so why not just download them all?

Fable: iOS/Android

Locket

Locket is one of the pioneers of the idea to put your friends directly on your iPhone’s Home Screen. The social app offers a live widget that updates as your friends upload new photos or messages, which you can respond to through a lightweight chat option. You can also engage in weekly photo dumps, follow your favorite artists, and more.

Locket: iOS/Android

Airbuds

Apple and Spotify never got social networks built around music right, but Airbuds seems to have done it. The app is a social network where you share what you’re streaming with your friends, then builds on top of that functionality to offer a range of other features. You can react to your friends’ music choices with emojis, stickers, or selfies, play clips of your friends’ recently streamed songs, message friends, configure your profile with favorite bands, or engage in music-related activities like music quizzes, getting your music style roasted, or finding out which friend has matching musical taste, to name a few.

Airbuds: iOS/Android

The Mall

Newly launched app The Mall turns online shopping into a social experience. The app offers a universal feed for following updates and new releases from your favorite brands, largely fashion — though you can add others that have an online e-commerce storefront. Plus, you can visit friends’ profiles to see what sort of items are in their collections and “mall” and get inspiration and recommendations of other brands you might like, based on your tastes and style.

The Mall: iOS (waitlist)

Shelf

Shelf’s central idea is to offer you a way to organize your taste — meaning the music, movies, TV shows, books, and other things you’re into. By doing so, Shelf lets you learn more about yourself, get personalized recaps, dive into trend breakdowns, and more. But a social element comes into play here, too, because you can browse friends’ shelves as sources of discovery and inspiration. Plus, unlike much of traditional social media, Shelf is private by default because it’s not about gaining clout; it’s about keeping a history of your own digital life and interests, and that of your friends.

Shelf: iOS