A crackdown on social media access for under-16s in Australia has led to the removal of access to around 4.7 million accounts so far across the various platforms, such as Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, officials in the country said, with tech firms facing the threat of large fines if they fail to take appropriate action to enforce the ban.
The figures, reported to Australia’s government by 10 social media platforms, were the first to show the scale of the landmark ban since it was enacted in December over fears about the effects of harmful online environments on young people.
Lawmakers in the U.S. have social media giants in their sights over similar concerns about the harms these platforms can cause the children who use them through exposure to cyberbullying, extreme and illegal content, sexual predators, and exploitation, among other substantial risks. Child mental health and suicide are a particular worry.
“We stared down everybody who said it couldn’t be done, some of the most powerful and rich companies in the world and their supporters,” Australia’s communications minister Anika Wells told reporters on Friday. “Now Australian parents can be confident that their kids can have their childhoods back.”
Under Australian law, Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, and Twitch face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($33.2 million) if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove the accounts of Australian children younger than 16. Messaging services such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are exempt.
About 2.5 million Australians are aged between 8 and 15, said the country’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, and past estimates suggested 84 percent of 8- to 12-year-olds held social media accounts. It was not known how many accounts were held across the 10 platforms, but Inman Grant said the figure of 4.7 million “deactivated or restricted” was encouraging.
“We’re preventing predatory social media companies from accessing our children,” Inman Grant said.
In a statement, Inman Grant also said “we are still at the very beginning of this journey,” but warned that, despite the initial “positive changes,” a deeper cultural shift felt by families and children “may take years to fully manifest.”
The 10 biggest companies covered by the ban were compliant with it and had reported removal figures to Australia’s regulator on time, the commissioner said. She added that social media companies were expected to shift their efforts from enforcing the ban to preventing children from creating new accounts or otherwise circumventing the prohibition.
Australian officials didn’t break the figures down by platform.
On Monday, U.S. technology firm Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and Threads social media platforms, said it had removed more than 544,000 accounts that it believed belonged to under-16s in Australia.
But Meta also reiterated its opposition to the ban, arguing that it could isolate vulnerable teens from finding support in online communities and push them to less regulated areas of the internet, among other concerns. It recommended legislation to require app stores to verify age and obtain parental approval before under-16s can download an app.
“As we’ve stated previously, Meta is committed to meeting its compliance obligations and is taking the necessary steps to remain compliant with the law,” the company said in a blog post.
“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.”
This article uses reporting by The Associated Press.
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