Rob Galluzzo
Creators & Channels · 36 Months
Co-fronted the 36 Months campaign alongside Michael "Wippa" Wipfli, driving a petition credited in Australia's under-16 law.
Rob Galluzzo co-fronts 36 Months, an Australian campaign that turned public concern about children's smartphone and social media use into a formal petition. Working alongside Michael "Wippa" Wipfli, Galluzzo helped the campaign gather more than 147,000 signatures, a number credited as part of the momentum behind Australia's under-16 social media ban. The pairing reflects a pattern this library tracks in the creator lane: broadcasters and media personalities, not just researchers or officials, converting audience attention into concrete legislative pressure.
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WORKS IN THE LIBRARY (12)
STUDIES
36 Months Australia — Raise the Age of Social Media Citizenship from 13 to 16 (Petition)
This is the founding petition of 36 Months, the Australian campaign fronted by radio host Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli and advertising executive Rob Galluzzo. Opened on Change.org in May 2024, it calls on the federal government to raise the minimum age for social media accounts from 13 to 16, framing the three years in between as a window of adolescent development the campaign argues is disrupted by early social media use. The petition gathered well over 125,000 signatures — reported elsewhere as more than 147,000 as the campaign grew — and was hand-delivered to Parliament House in Canberra. TechKids Foundation includes it as the primary organizing document behind Australia's under-16 social media law, an example of a media-led petition translating public concern into a specific legislative ask rather than general awareness-raising.
Exclusive: Wippa and Galluzzo Launch 36 Months to Raise Social Media Age
This Mediaweek exclusive covers the May 2024 public launch of 36 Months, the pro bono campaign co-founded by Nova radio host Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli and FINCH founder Rob Galluzzo, backed by News Corp Australia and Nova Entertainment. The article reports the campaign's ask — raising the legal age for social media accounts from 13 to 16 — and names early supporters including parenting author Maggie Dent and former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet. It cites third-party data on how widely Australian teens and pre-teens use social media, and references a claim, sourced to Raising Children Network, associating heavy social media use with cyberbullying, anxiety, depression, and self-harm among Australian teenagers. It also notes that Galluzzo sits on the board of youth-suicide-prevention nonprofit The Liv Project. TechKids Foundation cites this piece as the primary record of the campaign's launch and stated goals.
Wippa and Galluzzo Say 36 Months 'Is Not an Attack on Social Media'
Published the day after 36 Months' launch, this Mediaweek follow-up has Rob Galluzzo and Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli responding to early pushback, clarifying that raising the social media age to 16 is 'not an attack on social media' or on specific platforms. Galluzzo describes the campaign's ambition as narrowly targeted at delaying access during a specific developmental window rather than opposing social platforms broadly, defining the campaign's scope as any social network that 'encourages interactive engagement through addictive features.' Wipfli suggests platforms might cooperate voluntarily rather than risk negative headlines. TechKids Foundation cites this piece for how the campaign's founders characterized their own aim and scope in their own words, distinguishing the campaign's actual ask from a broader anti-technology stance, useful context for readers assessing the campaign's claims and tone.
Rob Galluzzo Says Govt's Social Media Ban for Kids Is an 'Emotional' Win for 36 Months
Days after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Australia would legislate a minimum social media age of 16, Rob Galluzzo told LBBOnline the decision was 'more emotional than I think I was ready for,' recounting the six-month path from petition to policy. The piece describes 36 Months delivering a petition of around 125,000 signatures to Canberra, accompanied by family members of young people the article says died by suicide following social media bullying, and meeting both the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader. Galluzzo credits advice from former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet and the campaign's small comms team, and notes Meta's own response (a new 'Instagram Teen' feature) as, in the founders' words, a 'very, very soft offering.' TechKids Foundation cites this as a first-person account of the campaign's path to legislative success and the bereaved families' documented advocacy role.
36 Months Launches Podcast Series Featuring Wippa and Rob Galluzzo
This B&T report covers the February 2025 launch of 36 Months' own monthly podcast, a KitKat-sponsored series hosted by campaign director Greg Attwells and featuring Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli and guests including parenting author Maggie Dent. Framed as the campaign's 'phase two,' the podcast is aimed at supporting parents, teachers, and caregivers through the practical adjustment to a higher social media age, rather than at further lobbying. The article also traces part of the campaign's origin to two families who say their daughters died by suicide after experiences connected to social media, both of whom joined Wipfli and Galluzzo on visits to Canberra. TechKids Foundation cites this piece both for the podcast's existence and purpose and for the documented advocacy role bereaved families played in the campaign, reported here strictly as public record, without speculation about individual cases.
Wippa Puts Pressure on Tech Giants to Police Underage Social Media Ban
Published as Australia's under-16 social media law moved toward taking effect, this Mediaweek interview has Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli arguing that responsibility for enforcing the age limit should sit with social media platforms rather than parents or children. Wipfli traces his own involvement back to watching his son's screen habits at home and says the campaign, co-founded with Rob Galluzzo, grew out of conversations about pressures reported in teenagers linked to social media. He frames platform-level age verification as the practical solution and rejects the idea that enforcement is mainly a parenting problem, saying 'the reliance can't be on the child or the parents.' TechKids Foundation cites this piece for how the campaign's public face articulated an implementation stance as the law's start date approached, distinct from the campaign's earlier legislative advocacy.
Teen Social Media Ban Group 36 Months Sold Brands Access to UN
This Crikey investigation reports that 36 Months, while campaigning for Australia's under-16 social media law, was simultaneously pursuing commercial opportunities tied to its own success — including brand sponsorships, plans to expand internationally, and a proprietary AI tool it hoped to sell. The piece focuses on a roughly $100,000 trip to New York, where the group hosted Communications Minister Anika Wells and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese around a UN-adjacent event, and contrasts this with 36 Months' own public criticism of opponents it accused of being funded by technology companies. TechKids Foundation includes this reporting as documented scrutiny of the campaign's funding model and commercial activity, presented as journalistic findings about the organization's conduct, separate from and not a comment on the underlying case for the age-limit law itself.
Teen Social Media Ban Lobby Group 36 Months Funded and Co-Staffed by Firm Making Gambling Ads
This Crikey investigation reports that 36 Months was founded, funded, and partly staffed by FINCH, the advertising production company run by co-founder Rob Galluzzo, and that FINCH's client roster has included gambling advertisers such as TAB, Sportsbet, and Ladbrokes. It documents that the campaign began at a single May 2024 meeting between Galluzzo, Nova radio host Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli, and 36 Months managing director Greg Attwells, and that Attwells held FINCH and 36 Months roles simultaneously for several months. The piece situates this alongside government decisions affecting gambling-advertising regulation around the same period. TechKids Foundation includes this reporting as documented scrutiny of a potential conflict of interest in how the campaign was structured and financed, separate from any assessment of the age-limit law's own merits.
36 Months: The World-Leading Campaign That Changed Social Media Laws for Teenagers
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.
Communications Department Offered to Pay 36 Months Lobby Group to Promote Teen Social Media Ban
This Crikey follow-up investigation reports that Australia's federal Communications Department invited 36 Months to bid for paid work promoting the very under-16 social media law the group had campaigned for, an approach the outlet describes as unusual. According to the report, 36 Months submitted a proposal but did not win the contract because its bid was judged too expensive. The piece revisits Crikey's earlier reporting on FINCH co-founder Rob Galluzzo's gambling-advertising client work and raises questions about government agencies directly engaging advocacy groups to market policies those groups already publicly champion. TechKids Foundation includes this reporting as documented follow-on scrutiny of the campaign's relationship with government after the law's passage, separate from any assessment of the underlying legislation.