SYDNEY, Australia – Meta has urged the Australian government to reconsider its ground-breaking social media ban for children under 16, while revealing it has blocked more than 544,000 accounts since the legislation took effect.
The tech giant’s plea comes as Australia’s world-first law continues to reshape social media access for young people, with companies facing potential fines of AUS$49.5 million (about R558 million)) for failing to comply.
Massive account removals
In the week following the law’s implementation on 10 December 2025, Meta removed 331,000 underage accounts from Instagram, 173,000 from Facebook, and 40,000 from Threads. The company emphasized its commitment to legal compliance while pushing for alternative approaches.
“We call on the Australian government to engage with industry constructively to find a better way forward,” Meta said in a statement. The company advocates for “incentivising all of industry to raise the standard in providing safe, privacy-preserving, age appropriate experiences online, instead of blanket bans.”
‘Whack-a-mole’ warning
Meta renewed its call for app stores to verify users’ ages and obtain parental approval before under-16s download applications. The company warned that without such measures, the current approach creates a “whack-a-mole” situation where teenagers migrate to new platforms to circumvent restrictions.
The California-based firm expressed concerns that the ban could isolate young people from online communities and push them toward “less regulated apps and darker corners of the internet.”
Government stands firm
Australian officials defended the legislation, emphasizing corporate responsibility. “Platforms like Meta collect a huge amount of data on their users for commercial purposes,” a government spokesperson said. “They can and must use that information to comply with Australian law and ensure people under 16 are not on their platforms.”
The government maintains the law holds social media companies accountable for harm caused to young Australians.
Industry response and future measures
Meta has helped establish the OpenAge Initiative, a non-profit organisation that launched age-verification tools called AgeKeys for participating platforms. The company describes its compliance approach as a “multi-layered process” while expressing concern about the absence of industry-standard age determination methods.
Despite initial implementation, Meta argues the legislation “is not meeting its objectives of increasing the safety and well-being of young Australians.”
The landmark Australian law affects major platforms including Meta, TikTok, and YouTube, requiring them to take “reasonable steps” to prevent underage users from accessing their services. As the world watches this unprecedented regulatory experiment, the debate over balancing child safety with digital access continues to evolve.
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