Not long after Australia and France introduced bans on social media platforms for children under 16 years of age, Indian IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that the government is mulling similar age-based restrictions in the country. While this news may sound like music to most parents’ ears, it will likely ring alarm bells for advertisers on social media platforms, for whom this young cohort is valuable.
According to the dentsu Digital Advertising Report, social media commanded the highest share of India’s digital ad spending in 2025 at Rs 21,057 crore. Categories such as FMCG — including major snacking and beverage brands — along with gaming and fashion, jointly spent an estimated Rs 18,000 crore on social media advertising last year.
With age-based restrictions on social media, advertisers will likely see an initial disruption, particularly in categories such as beauty, fast fashion, gaming, snacks and youth entertainment, opines Bhushan Kadam, SVP – Creative & Strategic Initiatives, White Rivers Media.
“Much of today’s digital momentum is built on early engagement signals from younger audiences that trigger algorithmic amplification. Removing that layer would slow down virality and compress short-term spikes,” he says, noting that it could also help advertisers move towards more sustainable and healthier brand building.
Even without a full ban, the country’s Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act already mandates that platforms obtain verifiable parental consent before processing data of those under 18 years of age, says Chetan Asher, Founder & CEO, Tonic Worldwide.
“However, if India introduces a blanket ban, advertisers will lose a direct pipeline to young consumers during their habit-forming years. Brands will be forced to rethink how and where they build early loyalty,” says Asher.
Most brands are likely to move to safer ecosystems such as online games, OTT streaming platforms or influencer content. Advertisers may also return to school-led programmes, community initiatives and experiential engagement to build familiarity in compliant ways, states Ravanan N, CEO, Oneindia.
Discussions around age-led restrictions will also tighten guardrails around data usage, behavioural profiling and consent.
“Transparent measurement and publisher accountability will become even more important,” says Ravanan.
With brands having to reset their media strategies, will social media giants take a hit to their ad revenues? Experts believe that platforms might see a short-term revenue dip from youth-heavy categories. However, the overall impact may be moderate since monetisation from under-16 consumer segments is already limited.
According to Harikrishnan Pillai, CEO & Co-founder, TheSmallBigIdea, advertisers have a range of alternatives beyond social media platforms to reach young consumers, including TV, YouTube Kids and kid-safe apps that offer viable advertising avenues.
However, he points out that responsibility does not rest with advertisers alone, but also with platforms.
“The issue is not advertising but rather access to a platform with unregulated content. The solution has to be platform-level and regulatory in nature. At its core, it’s a product responsibility problem. Fix the ecosystem, not just one element,” Pillai argues.