Around 756,000 accounts that Meta believed belonged to Australian minors under the age of 16 have been blocked after Australia's historic social media ban went into effect. This sweep took place between December and June.
Following a world-first restriction on teen accounts, Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, announced on Thursday that it had removed over 750,000 accounts it believed were owned by Australians under 16. The company also pledged to take further action in response to potential legislative action.
From soon before the Australian social media ban went into effect in December to June, the business claimed to have deactivated 462,000 suspicious Instagram accounts and 294,000 suspicious Facebook profiles, up from 331,000 Instagram accounts and 173,000 Facebook accounts by January, as reported by Reuters.
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While Australia's internet regulator is considering an enforcement lawsuit against platforms, including some that Meta owns, that it claims have failed to take adequate steps to comply with the law, the largest social media company in the world has stated that it wants to comply with a law that it and other platforms have vehemently opposed.
More than eight out of 10 under-16s were still using social media during the first three months of the ban, according to Australian government statistics and numerous independent studies. Still, no other platforms have revealed compliance data that corresponds with the time frame provided by Meta.
Concerns over social media's effects on children's and young teenagers' physical and emotional health led the Australian government to draft the historic bill, which went into effect on December 10.
Australia has introduced a law to double the maximum penalty for non-compliance to A$99 million ($69.75 million) and give the regulator more document discovery powers, while other nations around the world are considering similar age restrictions. Australia has accused the platforms of purposefully setting up the ban to fail.
On Friday, representatives from Meta, TikTok, Google, the owner of YouTube, and Snapchat are expected to testify in a parliamentary investigation over the modifications, together with government and regulatory representatives.
"Enforcement is ongoing, and these numbers will continue to grow," Meta stated in a statement. "We share the Australian Government's goal of ensuring young people have safe, age-appropriate experiences online, and we are meeting our obligations under the law," the business said.
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Products on the market might effectively support a prohibition, according to a 2025 Australian age assurance technology trial.
The majority of major platforms, such as Meta's, have implemented photo-based age estimation software; nonetheless, they claim that they usually subject users to age inference, which is the process of estimating an individual's age based on their online behaviour.
According to Meta, AI is being used to examine user profiles for "contextual clues that an account may belong to someone under 16, such as birthday celebrations or mentions of school grades" and to examine reports regarding accounts that may be underage.
The business also stated that if an individual's prior account was destroyed, they would no longer be able to try again to create an account.
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