Meta says it is starting to remove the accounts of teenagers under the age of 16 ahead of Australia’s world-first social media ban.
Under the new Australian law, which goes into effect on December 10, children under 16 will be unable to create or keep accounts on platforms such as Facebook, X, Threads, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, X, Reddit, and Google-owned YouTube.
If these platforms are found to violate the law, they could face stiff penalties of 50 million Australian dollars (€28 million).
On December 4, Meta saidin a blog post that it will begin removing Instagram, Threads and Facebook for teens under 16 and will block the creation of new accounts. The company will have all accounts removed by 10 December, the day the restrictions come into force.
Children can still keep their Messenger account so they can use it to connect with friends and family without having access to Facebook.
Meta said it started notifying teens that their accounts would be deleted as early as November 19, so they had two weeks to decide how to save their contacts and memories. Instagram users can make a copy of their data and export it to an external device.
The company will also collect the contact information for the under-16s with accounts so they can get back in touch with them when they are 16, so they can reopen their accounts, Meta said.
For anyone above 16 who might accidentally have their account removed, Meta said they could use an age verification platform, send in a government ID or a video selfie to get their accounts back.
Mia Garlick, Meta’s policy director for Australia and New Zealand, told the Australian parliament last month that there are approximately 450,000 under-16 users of Instagram and Facebook, two of Meta’s social media platforms.
Meta, Snapchat, YouTube don’t agree but will comply with ban
Under Australia’s new restrictions, children will be unable to create an account but will still be able to access the platforms despite not logging in.
Australia’s new restrictions are a way to protect young Australians from “pressures and risks that users can be exposed to while logged in to social media accounts,” according to the country’s internet safety regulator.
While Meta says it will comply, it believes “cutting teens off from their friends and communities isn’t the answer,” and will continue working with the Australian government to find another solution.
“This new law… will result in inconsistent protections across the many apps they use,” a blog post from the company reads, adding that teenagers won’t have the built-in safeguards that they used to with their accounts.
Meta said it supports another solution instead: requiring parental approval for any app downloads that a child under 16 tries to do, a method that’s being used in 20 American states.
This approach means parents could “approve the download and verify their teen’s age when setting up their child’s phone,” which could eliminate the need for age verification, the company said.
Representatives from Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, have previously said they don’t agree with the ban but will comply with it.
TikTok and Snapchat will be using “age assurance mechanisms” to make sure their platforms identify the under-16s with accounts and delete them ahead of 10 December.
In recent days, the Guardian Australia said the ban has reportedly been extended to Lemon8, a “lifestyle-community focused app” powered by TikTok, which saw a surge in interest because it was previously not included in the ban.
The eSafety Commissioner said the listof restricted apps could be updated until the ban comes into effect on 10 December. So far, the list excludes video gaming platforms such as Steam, Discord and Roblox, along with messaging apps like WhatsApp.