Meta has deactivated more than 544,000 social media accounts in Australia after the country’s new law banning children under 16 from holding social media accounts came into force, the company confirmed.
The legislation, which took effect on December 10, requires major platforms — including Meta, TikTok and YouTube — to prevent under-16s from maintaining accounts, marking one of the world’s strictest regulatory moves to limit children’s access to social media.
Meta said that between December 4 and 11, it removed 544,052 accounts believed to belong to users under 16. These included 330,639 Instagram accounts, 173,497 Facebook accounts and 39,916 Threads accounts, according to DW.COM
Under the law, companies that fail to comply face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars.
In a statement, Meta said it was committed to complying with the new regulations but reiterated concerns over the lack of a unified industry standard for age verification.
“Our concerns about determining age online without an industry standard remain,” the company said, calling on the Australian government to work more closely with technology firms to develop more effective and privacy-preserving solutions.
Meta urged authorities to consider measures that would require app stores to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent before downloads, arguing that this approach would provide consistent protections for young users across all platforms.
“This is the only way to guarantee industry-wide safeguards and avoid the whack-a-mole effect of teens migrating to new apps to bypass restrictions,” the company said.
Australian public broadcaster ABC reported that the government is expected to release official data this week detailing how many underage users have been removed from platforms affected by the ban.
Australia’s move has been widely welcomed by child protection advocates and has prompted other countries, including Germany, to consider similar legislation.
