Meta urges Australia to change world-first teen social media ban

Tech giant Meta urges Australia to rethink its world-first social media ban for under-16s, while reporting that it has blocked more than 544,000 accounts under the new law.

Australia has required big platforms including Meta, TikTok and YouTube to stop underage users from holding accounts since the legislation came into force on December 10 last year.

Companies face fines of Aus$49.5 million (US$33 million) if they fail to take “reasonable steps” to comply.

Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta says it had removed 331,000 underage accounts from Instagram, 173,000 from Facebook, and 40,000 from Threads in the week to December 11.

The company says it was committed to complying with the law.

“That said, we call on the Australian government to engage with industry constructively to find a better way forward, such as incentivising all of industry to raise the standard in providing safe, privacy-preserving, age appropriate experiences online, instead of blanket bans,” it says in statement.

Meta renewed an earlier call for app stores to be required to verify people’s ages and get parental approval before under-16s can download an app.

This was the only way to avoid a “whack-a-mole” race to stop teens migrating to new apps to avoid the ban, the company claims.

Meta says parents and experts are worried about the ban isolating young people from online communities, and driving some to less regulated apps and darker corners of the internet.