Instagram and Facebook owner Meta informs Australian teens of account closures

Australian teenagers have been told their Instagram, Facebook and Threads accounts will be shut down ahead of the country’s social media ban for under-16s.

Meta, which owns the three brands, said it has started notifying users it believes are between the ages of 13 and 15 via text messages, emails and in-app messages that their accounts will be deactivated starting December 4.

Australia’s ban will come into effect on December 10. It affected many platforms, which also included TikTok, YouTube, X, and Reddit.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the “world-leading” ban was aimed at “letting children be children”. Meta and other companies opposed the measure but said they would comply.

Australia’s internet regulator estimates there are 150,000 Facebook users and 350,000 Instagram users in the 13- to 15-year-old age group.

Starting December 4, children under the age of 16 will not be able to create accounts on Meta’s social media platforms.

The company said it asked young users to update their contact details so they would be notified when they are eligible to open an account.

They can download and save their posts, videos, and messages before their account is closed.

Meta says teens who say they’re old enough to use Instagram, Facebook and Threads can challenge this limit by taking “video selfies” for use in facial age scans.

They can also provide a driver’s license or other government-issued ID.

Earlier this year, the UK’s Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) put all these verification methods to the test in a report commissioned by the Australian government.

While the ACCS said all approaches have their merits, it added: “We have not found a single universal solution that suits all use cases, nor a solution that is guaranteed to be effective in all deployments.”

Social media platforms that fail to take “reasonable steps” to block under-16s could face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars (£25 million).

“While we are working to remove all users we know of who are under 16 by December 10, compliance with the law will be an ongoing, multi-layered process,” Antigone Davis, vice president and global head of security at Meta, told Reuters Financial.

Meta wants a law that would require teenagers under the age of sixteen to get parental approval before downloading social media apps.

“Teenagers are resourceful and may try to bypass age safeguards to access restricted services,” the company told Seven News Australia.

But it said: “We are committed to meeting our compliance obligations and are taking the necessary steps to comply with the law.”

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said the ban was intended to protect teenagers “from the stress and risks they may face when logging into their social media accounts”.

Gaming platform Roblox announced this week that children under 16 will no longer be able to chat with adult strangers, a move that appears to be an attempt to avoid being included in the ban.

Mandatory age checks will be introduced for accounts using chat in Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands starting in December, followed by the rest of the world starting in January.