Meta closes 550,000 accounts in Australia due to social media ban for children

Meta Platforms Inc. has officially confirmed the deactivation of nearly 550,000 accounts on its platforms in Australia. This move comes in response to the enactment of a landmark law prohibiting social media use for children under 16. This was reported by Bloomberg, writes UNN.

Details

According to the company's official report, users whose age, according to Meta's algorithms, is less than 16 years old, were subject to deletion. The distribution across platforms is as follows:

Instagram: approximately 330,000 accounts;

Facebook: 173,000 accounts;

Threads: almost 40,000 accounts.

The law, which came into force on December 10, 2025, obliges tech giants such as Meta and TikTok to block access for minors. Violations of these norms are subject to sanctions of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars (about 33 million US dollars). Australia became the first country in the world to introduce such strict age restrictions at the legislative level.

Criticism and Meta's concerns

Despite complying with the requirements, Meta's management continues to criticize the Australian ban. The company insists that age verification should be carried out at the operating system level (App Store or Google Play), and not by individual applications.

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Meta representatives note that the current law provokes a mass migration of teenagers to alternative, less controlled platforms or the use of VPNs to circumvent the ban. The company calls for the introduction of unified industry standards for youth protection instead of targeted repressive measures. Currently, children are allowed to download their data before account deletion, and access to them can only be restored after reaching the age of 16. 

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