News Investigation

36 Months: The World-Leading Campaign That Changed Social Media Laws for Teenagers

Jan 2026 🇦🇺 B&T

This B&T retrospective, published alongside coverage of the Cairns Crocodiles advertising awards, recaps the scale of the 36 Months campaign led by Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli and Rob Galluzzo, crediting it with helping make Australia the first country to legislate a minimum social media age of 16. It reports campaign-reach figures — petition signatures, news-story volume, and estimated audience impressions — and brand partners that backed the effort, and notes the campaign won Gold in the Cairns Crocodiles' 'Changing the World Campaign' category the previous year. The piece also states the Australian law has drawn interest from the UK, New Zealand, and Denmark, among others considering similar rules. TechKids Foundation cites this as a trade-press summary of the campaign's reported scale and industry recognition, not as independent evidence of any health outcome.

>125,000 petition signatures

Article reports the 36 Months petition received more than 125,000 signatures within six months of launch.

3,270+ news stories, ~2.3B impressions

B&T reports media coverage of more than 3,270 news stories (about 70% broadcast) and an estimated 2.3 billion impressions.

Cairns Crocodiles Gold, 'Changing the World Campaign'

The campaign won Gold in that category at the prior year's Cairns Crocodiles advertising awards.

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CITATION

B&T Staff Writers. "36 Months: The World-Leading Campaign That Changed Social Media Laws For Teenagers." B&T, January 22, 2026. https://www.bandt.com.au/36-months-the-world-leading-campaign-that-changed-social-media-laws-for-teenagers/

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