Canada Might Ban Social Media for Kids. What Brands Should Do Now?
Countries including Canada are proposing bans on social media for under-16s, which could reshape digital marketing. Gen Alphas are highly influential, tech natives with enormous spending power. They sway purchases in their households, encouraging their families to try new things. But what happens when they’re no longer online? How do brands reach them?
While these bans are primarily framed around child safety and digital wellbeing, they also signal a significant change in the e-commerce landscape.
Why is this social ban even being discussed?
Gen Alpha has not known life before social media. And constant contact with digital feeds can impact young minds. Gen Alpha is known as the “anxious generation,” reporting high rates of stress, cyberbullying, body image issues and addictive tendencies. These struggles have been linked to early, heavy social media use, with 64 percent of users aged 8-12 using platforms such as YouTube and TikTok daily.
Though most players have upped their youth-safety games of late, some governments have decided to access to platforms altogether, at least for younger teens. But will this work for a generation that has grown up online?
For years, social media has been the fastest route for brands to reach young consumers. If Gen Alpha faces stricter platform access, brands will need to rethink how they build early brand affinity.
There are two avenues you can take to ethically reach younger consumers: Communicate with them IRL or reach them through their guardians.
1️⃣ Meet them offline
Brands should think about meeting their audience offline through pop-ups, merch drops and experiential events that drive word-of-mouth referrals. If they can’t see your brand online, make it visible IRL.
Social media has functioned as a kind of “third place” for Gen Alpha, a space where they learn, socialize and engage with culture. If access to these platforms becomes more limited, that attention may shift toward real-life experiences. This creates a valuable opportunity for brands to show up in tangible ways through curated events and activations that allow younger audiences to interact with the products and services directly.
A strong example is Doritos’ “Friends Only” party in Toronto, designed to feel like a private hangout, not a campaign. The experience leaned into high-energy, IRL moments with immersive activations like tattoos, ball pits, custom merch, massages, nail salons, bull riding and DJ sets. There was also curated food and both alcoholic and non-alcoholic options so Gen Z and Gen Alpha could hang out together for music and vibes.
Instead of chasing consumers online, Doritos focused on creating something people genuinely wanted to experience and share, generating organic buzz through word-of-mouth and attendee content.
2️⃣ Target the household decision-maker
For brands that rely heavily on social media to drive awareness, another strategy is to focus on the decision-makers in the household. If Gen Alpha cannot freely access social platforms, parents and sometimes older siblings become the primary gatekeepers. Marketing efforts can shift toward communicating with these audiences by emphasizing why the product is a strong choice for younger consumers, whether through clear reasons-to-believe (RTBs), product benefits or comparisons that highlight what sets the brand apart.
In this environment, trust will matter more than viral reach.
What does this ban mean in the long term?
Youth culture will not disappear, it’ll move. Every generation finds new digital spaces. For Gen Alpha, those spaces may be less traditional social media feeds or more interactive, alternative ecosystems.
Brands that succeed will focus less on specific platforms and more on where culture and community are forming by:
Investing in storytelling over short-term virality
Creating trust among household buyers (parents, grandparents, older siblings)
Creating experiences that exist both online and offline
The brands that win with Gen Alpha won’t chase the next algorithm. They’ll design brand experiences that travel wherever the next generation spends its time.
