Key facts
- Meta has taken down 756,000 accounts suspected of belonging to Australians under 16.
- The accounts were removed between December and June, following Australia's ban on teen social media use.
- Meta deactivated 462,000 Instagram and 294,000 Facebook accounts.
- The company is using AI to analyze user profiles for contextual clues indicating underage users.
- Australia has increased the maximum penalty for non-compliance to A$99 million.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced on Thursday that it has removed over 756,000 accounts suspected of belonging to Australians under the age of 16. This action comes in response to a new Australian law, implemented in December, which bans social media accounts for individuals under 16. Between the law's inception and June, Meta deactivated 462,000 Instagram accounts and 294,000 Facebook accounts that were flagged as potentially underage. This represents a significant increase from the 331,000 Instagram and 173,000 Facebook accounts the company reported removing by January.
The Australian government enacted the law due to concerns about the impact of social media on the mental and physical health of young people. Despite the ban, government figures and independent studies indicate that over 80% of under-16s remained on social media during the ban's initial three months. Australia has accused social media platforms of intentionally undermining the ban's effectiveness and has doubled the maximum penalty for non-compliance to A$99 million (approximately $69.75 million), while also granting regulators enhanced document discovery powers.
Representatives from Meta, TikTok, Google (owner of YouTube), and Snap (owner of Snapchat) are scheduled to appear before a parliamentary inquiry on Friday, alongside regulatory and government officials, to discuss the changes and compliance efforts. Meta stated that enforcement is ongoing and the number of removed accounts will continue to rise, asserting its commitment to meeting its legal obligations and ensuring safe online experiences for young users. The company indicated it is employing AI to analyze user profiles for contextual clues, such as birthday mentions or references to school grades, and is also analyzing reports of suspected underage accounts. Additionally, Meta has restricted the ability for users to repeatedly attempt to set up accounts if their previous ones were deleted.