Meta pays influencers to fight social media bans for teens accounts worldwide, new report

Meta flies parenting influencers to a waterfront venue overlooking Sydney Harbour, hands out personalized scout badges and gourmet s’mores, then asks them to tell their followers that blanket bans on teen social media use are a bad idea.

That’s what happened, according to a new Tech Transparency Project investigation, which found Meta staged the Sydney event in July 2025, five months before Australia’s landmark under-16 ban took effect. TTP’s report shows that this exact playbook has now spread to more than a dozen countries where governments have started weighing similar restrictions.

How Meta’s influencer playbook works

The pattern repeats itself almost identically everywhere, per TTP’s findings. Meta hosts polished branded events, often called Instagram Safety Camp or Screen Smart, then recruits actors, radio hosts, psychologists, and parenting influencers to promote its Teen Accounts as proof that bans are unnecessary.