Imagine coming up with a campaign that not only changed the landscape in Australia, but has the power to change regulation across the world? That is exactly what the winner of the Cairns Crocodiles Awards Changing the World Campaign, 36 Months, has achieved less than six months after picking up a gold crocodile.
36 Months is a social change initiative to amend legislation to raise the minimum age Australian teenagers can sign up for social media accounts from 13 to 16.
Spearheaded by Nova’s Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli and Rob Galluzzo, founder of FINCH, 36 Months brought together teachers, parents, teenagers and health experts, as well as public figures such as Megan Gale, Guy Sebastian and Zoë Foster-Blake. Supermassive led the PR advocacy campaign.
Enter the 2026 Cairns Crocodiles Awards now!
Launched in May 2024, the campaign rallied more than 138,000 petition signatures to raise the age of social media citizenship by 36 months, garnering the bipartisan support of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.
The campaign launched at a pivotal moment when global debate about digital safety was intensifying and Australia’s lawmakers actively debated age restrictions. In the year leading up to a federal election, 36 Months not only reshaped the digital safety conversation, but also shifted public attitudes towards the issue and provided an unambiguous policy solution, making it difficult for legislators to ignore.
In November 2024, against great odds and the powerful tech lobby, the government introduced new legislation to raise the minimum age teens can have social media accounts to 16.
In December, the new laws will come into force, impacting Reddit, Kick, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram Meta.
Australia’s legislation is being closely monitored by countries, including Canada and in Europe, who are also exploring similar age restrictions.
Judges described the campaign as: “awe inspiring”, “truly remarkable” and “an outstanding example of how this industry can help to drive tangible, life changing, behavioural change – for good”.
Other worthy campaigns that won Cairns Crocodiles in this category includedUNICEF Australia’s ‘The Appeal Appeal’ by Howatson+Company (silver), Legacy Club Services ‘Legacy Larger’ by VML (silver) and WWF’s ‘The Finger’ by Droga5 New Zealand.
Do you have a campaign that can change the world? Enter the 2026 Cairns Crocodiles Awards now!
