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TL;DR

• UK government to ban under-16s from using social media apps including TikTok and YouTube

• Meta updates its livestream shopping tools with in-stream adverts and ‘virtual cards’

• Twitch creators can now get certified in brand partnerships to attract collaborations

• CreatorIQ publishes report exploring how brands are incorporating content creation into their marketing campaigns

• Substack improves its brand partnership offering

UK bans under-16s from using social media apps including TikTok and YouTube

The British government are the latest to announce that they will ban children aged under 16 years old from using social media platforms, including Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X. The ban is expected to come into effect from early next year and is intended to protect children.

The policy immediately received pushback from platforms including Meta who claim that the bans are easy for teens to bypass and will push users into unregulated areas of the internet.

Meta updates its livestream shopping tools

Meta have announced updates to their livestream promotion options to improve the shopping experience during live broadcasts. These improvements include the expansion of its in-stream adverts to Instagram and worldwide on Facebook, the roll out of support for virtual cards so users can use temporary, disposable card numbers generated from their Mastercard or Visa accounts, rather than providing their bank details, and the ability for businesses to make their catalogues discoverable for creators to search and tag products, and create affiliate links in their posts.

Twitch creators can now get certified to earn more trust from potential brand partners

Twitch have released ‘The Creator Certification’, a new type of badge for users to show advertisers that they are certified for brand partnerships. The certification program consists of a 15-minute ‘Creator Camp’ course which can be found inside Twitch’s Sponsorship Portal.

The badge shows advertisers that accredited creators have “sponsorship know-how” including best practices for creating suitable content. The certification also comes with early access to Open Invitation Campaigns and further training for long-term sponsorship collaborations.

Brands see greater profits after embracing content creation

CreatorIQ have published a free report on how brands incorporate content creation into their advertising campaigns and the financial results they’re seeing.

Worth a read for creators who want to understand what brands are looking for and how they utilise content creators.

Substack creators embrace brand partnerships (from January 2025)

Substack is well-known to content creators but it’s not often thought of as a key platform for generating brand partnerships. This article shines a light on how some writers are capitalising on their audience by working with brands and including affiliate links and promotional paragraphs in their newsletters. While the platform currently takes 10% of the subscription revenue, it doesn’t take a percentage of the user’s ad sales, making brand partnerships more enticing.

47% of creators have had their content stolen.

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This newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.

Written and produced by a human. All opinions are my own.