Overview
- Australia’s under‑16 social media ban took effect on December 10, requiring major platforms to deactivate or delete suspected underage accounts.
- Meta reports removing 544,052 accounts across Instagram, Facebook and Threads since the law began, as part of its compliance efforts.
- Between December 4 and 11, Meta says it took down 330,639 Instagram accounts, 173,497 Facebook accounts and 39,916 Threads accounts believed to belong to under‑16s.
- Platforms face penalties of up to A$49.5 million if they fail to take reasonable steps to block under‑16 users, placing enforcement responsibility on the companies.
- Meta contends teens can still encounter algorithmic content while logged out, calls the policy ineffective, and proposes legislated app‑store age checks with parental approval, citing emerging tools such as the OpenAge Initiative’s AgeKeys.