Author: Bernardo Figueiredo, Associate Professor of Marketing, RMIT University

The Australian government’s recent decision to ban under 16s from social media has focused attention on the harms it can cause – especially for young people. But young people are just one segment of the population who use social media. According to the Digital 2024 report, 78.3% of Australians regularly use platforms such as Facebook and Instagram – mainly for keeping in touch with friends and family. Perhaps surprisingly, a large proportion of these users are older people. For example, the Digital 2024 report also shows that 21.3% of Meta’s ad audience in Australia (on Messenger, Facebook and Instagram) are…