Abstract
Last year, Australia passed legislation to increase the age of access to social media from 13 to 16. This represented a first step in a public health approach to addressing the harms of social media use in young people. A similar approach could be introduced in Aotearoa New Zealand, where giving children access to social media platforms has become a societal norm. In this Briefing, we discuss the potential benefit of a policy to increase the age of access to social media as a pathway to shifting social norms. We also explore the possibility of a backfire effect when working with young people in this context. To achieve the most out of a policy change, we recommend a multi-layered public health approach that includes action at all levels to protect and promote the health of individual children and the wider community.