How Australia's teen social media ban could impact netballers

Harriet Millard

From 10 December 2025, Australia’s new online-safety rules will force major platforms such as  Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube to block users under 16 or the companies will face fines.

Sport relies heavily on social media to reach, grow and energise its fanbase, especially younger audiences who discover players, teams and competitions through short-form video, behind-the-scenes clips and direct athlete storytelling, and netball is no exception.

A Planet Netball study in August 2025 of 227 elite netballers’ public Instagram accounts (pro / semi-pro / U21 internationals, across Australia, New Zealand and the UK) showed just how powerful that digital presence is in Australian netball. Australian players had, on average, almost double the followers of their New Zealand counterparts, and nearly three times as many as UK netball athletes. The gap reflects Australian netball's strong digital ecosystem and raises questions about what happens if 13-16 year olds (around 4-5% of the population of Australia) suddenly disappear from those spaces.

To understand what this ban could really mean for netball, it’s worth looking at how it might help or hinder each stakeholder of the sport’s ecosystem, but this article focuses on elite players.

Social media has become one of the most powerful tools for netballers building their profiles, influence and earning potential. Netball salaries remain modest in comparison to other sports, so digital visibility can help to fill the gap and many of Australia’s top athletes routinely use Instagram and TikTok to share things about themselves from dance routines and training clips to meal prep, hair prep, face prep and other fun content that helps them develop a recognisable identity beyond the court.

This matters: in sports like football and cricket, personal brand growth has directly influenced sponsorship deals and national-team marketability, and netball is increasingly following the same trajectory.

Netballers are also traditionally entrepreneurial. Many have built side businesses that rely heavily on reaching younger audiences online -  from children’s books to coaching clinics to merch drops, skill challenges and youth-focused content that drives both engagement and income. Social media has been central to making these ventures visible and commercially viable.

Australian players in particular have benefited from this model. With the Suncorp Super Netball competition enjoying strong broadcast coverage and a high public profile, many Diamonds have built substantial online followings, not perhaps on the scale of some other sports stars, but far ahead of their peers in New Zealand or the UK. That reach translates into commercial leverage; a player with a healthy digital footprint can secure partnerships, promote causes, and maintain relevance even during off-seasons or injury spells. 

Removing under-16s from these platforms disrupts that pipeline. With an average following of 11,993, the new law will remove c539 fans per account.

For emerging athletes, especially those who are not yet household names, the absence of that demographic could slow audience growth and stall brand momentum at a critical stage of their careers.