Meta has removed more than 750,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts suspected of belonging to Australians under the age of 16, as the company steps up compliance with the country’s landmark social media age restriction law.
The company disclosed on Thursday that it deactivated 462,000 suspected underage Instagram accounts and 294,000 Facebook accounts between December, when the law came into effect, and June.
The latest figures represent a significant increase from January, when Meta reported removing 331,000 Instagram accounts and 173,000 Facebook accounts.
The removals come as Australia’s internet regulator considers enforcement action against several social media platforms over concerns that they have not done enough to comply with the legislation.
Australia introduced the world’s first nationwide social media ban for users under 16 on December 10, citing concerns over the impact of social media on children’s mental and physical wellbeing.
Despite the crackdown, Australian government data and independent studies indicate that more than 80% of children under 16 remained on social media during the first three months of the ban.
The Australian government has since proposed stronger enforcement measures, including increasing the maximum penalty for non-compliance to A$99 million and expanding the regulator’s investigative powers.
Representatives from Meta, TikTok, Google-owned YouTube and Snapchat are scheduled to appear before a parliamentary inquiry on Friday to discuss their compliance efforts.
“Enforcement is ongoing, and these numbers will continue to grow,” Meta said in a statement.
The company added that it remains committed to complying with Australia’s regulations and providing age-appropriate online experiences for young users.
To identify underage users, Meta said it uses artificial intelligence to analyse user profiles for contextual signals, such as birthday celebrations, references to school grades and reports submitted by other users. The company has also disabled repeated account creation attempts after an underage account has been removed.
