Meta said on Thursday that it had deactivated more than 750,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts it suspected belonged to Australians under the age of 16, as the company faces mounting regulatory scrutiny over compliance with Australia’s landmark social media restrictions.
The removals come as Australia’s internet regulator considers further enforcement against platforms that fail to comply. Meta says it is using AI-based tools and other measures to detect potentially underage users, while the company and other tech firms face parliamentary scrutiny over how effectively the ban is being implemented.
The company said it had removed 462,000 suspected under-16 Instagram accounts and 294,000 Facebook accounts between immediately before the ban took effect in December and June. The figures represent a substantial increase from the 331,000 Instagram accounts and 173,000 Facebook accounts Meta said it had removed by January.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said enforcement remains ongoing and that the number of accounts removed is expected to increase. The company has maintained that it intends to comply with the Australian law, despite having publicly opposed the legislation along with other major technology platforms.
Australia’s landmark under-16 social media ban
Australia’s world-first social media restrictions came into force on December 10, following concerns over the impact of social media on the physical and mental health of children and young teenagers.
The legislation has attracted international attention as other governments consider similar age restrictions. Australian authorities have accused social media companies of effectively allowing the ban to fail and have moved to strengthen enforcement measures.
The government has introduced legislation that would double the maximum penalty for non-compliance to A$99 million ($69.75 million) while also granting Australia’s internet regulator greater powers to obtain documents.
Regulator considers enforcement action
The latest figures come as Australia’s internet regulator considers whether to pursue an enforcement lawsuit against platforms, including companies owned by Meta, over what it regards as insufficient compliance with the law.
Meta said in a statement that its enforcement efforts would continue, adding that it shared the Australian government’s objective of ensuring young people have safe and age-appropriate experiences online and that it was meeting its legal obligations.
No other major platforms have published compliance figures covering the same period as Meta. However, Australian government data and several independent studies have indicated that more than eight in 10 under-16s remained on social media during the first three months of the ban.
Representatives from Meta, TikTok, Google, which owns YouTube, and Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, are scheduled to appear before a parliamentary inquiry on Friday, alongside regulatory and government officials.
Meta expands AI-based age detection
Meta said it is using artificial intelligence to identify accounts that may belong to people under 16. Its systems analyze user profiles for what the company described as “contextual clues,” including birthday celebrations, references to school grades and reports concerning suspected underage users.
The company has also removed the ability for users to make additional attempts to create an account after a previous account has been deleted.
A 2025 Australian trial of age-assurance technology found that products available on the market could effectively support an under-16 social media ban. Most major platforms, including Meta’s services, subsequently introduced photo-based age-estimation technology, although they generally first attempt to infer a user’s age based on online activity.
