Meta closed more than 750 thousand accounts under the age of 16 in Australia

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said on Thursday that it had closed more than 750,000 accounts suspected of being used by Australians under 16 since the world-first ban on youth accounts and that it would take further action against possible regulatory intervention.

The company emphasized that it disabled 462 thousand suspicious Instagram accounts and 294 thousand suspicious Facebook accounts from December to June, when the social media ban came into force in Australia, and that this number was higher than the 331 thousand Instagram accounts and 173 thousand Facebook accounts removed until January.

The world's largest social media company has announced that it wants to comply with a law that it and other platforms strongly oppose. The statement comes as Australia's internet regulator is considering taking enforcement action against platforms, including some platforms owned by Meta, for failing to take adequate steps to comply with the law.

Representatives of Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and Google, as well as officials from regulators and government officials, are scheduled to testify on Friday at a parliamentary inquiry into the changes.

In their statement, Meta's officials stated, "Our banning practices continue and the number of these applications will continue to increase."

"We are meeting our obligations under the law by acting in line with the Australian Government's goal of ensuring young people have safe and age-appropriate experiences online," the company also said.

A 2025 trial of age verification technology in Australia found that products on the market could support a de facto ban. Most major platforms, including Meta's, have introduced photo-based age estimation software; but they note that they often age users first, meaning they assume a person's age based on their online activity.

Meta said it uses artificial intelligence to analyze user profiles for contextual clues that an account might belong to someone under 16, such as mentions of birthday celebrations or school grades, and review reports of accounts suspected of belonging to minors. The company also added that it has removed the option for people whose previous accounts have been deleted to attempt to create a new account.