The archive · PR & Stunts · Marketing decision · 2024–2025
36 Months campaigns to raise Australia's social media age to 16 — law passes in 6 months
A radio host and a production boss turn parental worry into a 36-month ask; Australia bans under-16s from social media within six months.
36 Months · FINCH · Supermassive
What it had to solve
Australian parents worried about social media's effect on teenage mental health but had no single demand; platforms resisted change and kids could sign up from 13.
How it works
In May 2024, Nova radio host Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli and FINCH founder Rob Galluzzo — two fathers worried about their kids — launched 36 Months, a social change initiative with a single demand: raise the minimum age of social media citizenship in Australia by 36 months, from 13 to 16. The insight was developmental: ages 13 to 16 are a critical window in which social media exposure can do lasting harm, so every month mattered.
The creative move was turning an anxious public conversation into one precise, winnable number. The campaign launched with a high-impact prime-time appearance on The Project, then ran a sustained earned-media push: Wippa's breakfast radio show interviewed policymakers, experts and celebrities including Kate Winslet; a 60 Minutes episode told the story; bereaved families gave testimony; and a petition gathered 138,000+ signatures. Mid-campaign polling showed 77% of Australians supported raising the age to 16.
The result was legislative. On 7 November 2024 the Prime Minister announced the change, and by late November the bill passed, making Australia the first country to legislate a minimum social media age of 16 — six months from launch. The campaign logged 2.3 billion impressions and 3,270 news stories, and its founders then shared the playbook openly with grassroots groups in the UK, EU, Japan and New Zealand.
Why it lands
- A precise target ('13 to 16, 36 months') made support measurable and the demand impossible to fuzz.
- Parent voices plus one celebrity-radio megaphone created a chorus the media could not ignore.
- Expert testimony and bereaved families' stories framed delay as public health, not anti-tech politics.
- The ask was deliberately small and achievable — change one age in one law — which made 'winning' visible.
What it did
Australia became the first country to legislate a minimum social media age of 16 — the law passed six months after launch with 77% public support, and the UK, EU, Japan and New Zealand later moved on similar rules.
What you can take
Give a movement one concrete, measurable ask: '36 months, 13 to 16' turned diffuse parental anxiety into a petition, a news cycle and a law — a number is a campaign, a feeling is not.
Since then
36 Months outlived the law: the founders were shortlisted for the Dan Wieden Titanium Lion at Cannes 2025 and won a Silver Lion for PR Effectiveness, plus the Lotus Grande for Humanity at ADFEST 2025. Rather than expanding to other markets itself, the team published its playbook and mentored grassroots groups in the UK, EU, Japan and New Zealand, then began building a student-wellbeing tool with NSW principals to measure how the new law plays out in schools.
Sources
- 36 Months — Raising the Age of Social Media Citizenship (ADFEST 2025 winners page)
- What's Next For FINCH and Supermassive's Titanium Shortlisted '36 Months' Campaign
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