Lancet Reg Health West Pac. 2026 Mar 5;68:101822. doi: 10.1016/j.lanwpc.2026.101822. eCollection 2026 Mar.
ABSTRACT
Social media is a popular recruitment tool for adolescent research as it can enable rapid, low-cost, and targeted enrolment. Australia’s Online Safety Amendment Bill, which introduced a mandatory minimum age of 16 from December 2025, is likely to disrupt some researchers’ ability to recruit adolescents aged 13-15 who are commonly accessed through these platforms. This viewpoint examines the implications of the legislation for recruitment feasibility, sample representativeness, and research equity in Australia, with flow-on effects for international studies. We identify three areas of impact: shifts in sample composition due to reduced reach; increased reliance on gatekeeper-mediated recruitment, with potential risks to participation privacy, and sample diversity; and greater operational complexity, longer timelines, and higher costs. We highlight opportunities to strengthen youth-centred research infrastructure, including establishing a national youth research registry, supporting multi-modal recruitment through expanded funding and timelines, and advancing ethical, developmentally appropriate consent pathways that minimise gatekeeping.
PMID:41810386 | PMC:PMC12969804 | DOI:10.1016/j.lanwpc.2026.101822
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