Meta deactivates 550K accounts under Australia's ban on social media platforms

Meta Platforms Inc. said it has shut down almost 550,000 accounts in Australia as it begins complying with the country’s new law banning children under 16 from social media platforms.

In a statement issued one month after the law took effect, Meta said that as of December 11, it had removed access to nearly 550,000 accounts it believes belonged to users under 16. The removals were carried out between December 4 and December 11.

“As we are now one month into Australia’s social media age ban law being in effect, we wanted to provide an update on how we’ve commenced our compliance with the law,” the company said, adding that early impacts of the legislation suggest it “is not meeting its objectives of increasing the safety and well-being of young Australians.”

Meta said ongoing compliance would be a ‘multi-layered process’ that it would continue to refine, while reiterating concerns about determining users’ ages online without an industry-wide standard.

Since the law came into force, the company said it has become a founding partner of the OpenAge Initiative, a non-profit organisation focused on age assurance. The group has launched age-verification tools called AgeKeys, which Meta described as “interoperable, privacy-preserving global age signals.”

Users would be able to verify their age through methods including government-issued identification, financial information, face estimation or national digital wallets. The company said it plans to begin integrating the tools into its apps in Australia and other markets in 2026.

Despite this, it argued that age verification on an app-by-app basis remains inefficient. Citing U.S. research showing that teenagers use more than 40 apps a week, many platforms may not prioritise safety or fall under Australia’s ban.

Meta said concerns raised since the law’s introduction include the risk of isolating vulnerable teenagers from online support, pushing them toward less regulated apps, inconsistent age-verification practices across the industry, and low willingness among some teens and parents to comply.

These issues highlight the need for age verification and parental approval at the app store level, which it described as “the only way to guarantee consistent, industry-wide protections for young people.”

Meta also challenged the law’s premise that banning under-16s from holding accounts prevents exposure to algorithm-driven content, arguing that platforms still use algorithms for logged-out users.

The company said it remains committed to complying with the law but called for further engagement with policymakers. “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,” Meta said.