Meta has started booting Australian children under 16 years off its Instagram, Facebook and Threads platforms, a week before an official teen social media ban begins. The tech giant announced last month that it had begun notifying users aged between 13 to 15 years old that their accounts would start being shut down from 4 December. An estimated 150,000 Facebook users and 350,000 Instagram accounts are expected to be affected. Threads, similar to X, can only be accessed via an Instagram account. Australia's world-first social media ban starts on 10 December, with companies facing fines of up to A$49.5m (US$33m, £25m) if they fail to take "reasonable steps" to stop under-16s from having accounts. A spokesperson for Meta told the BBC on Thursday that "compliance with the law will be an ongoing and multi-layered process". "While Meta is committed to complying with the law, we believe a more effective, standardised, and privacy-preserving approach is needed," she said. The government should require app stores to verify the age of users when they download apps and ask for parental approval for under-16s, Meta said, as this would eliminate the need for teens to verify their age across different apps. Last month, Meta said users it had identified as under 16 would be able to download and save their posts, videos and messages before their accounts are deactivated. Teens who believe they have been wrongly categorised as under 16 can ask for a review and submit a "video selfie" to verify their age. They can also provide a driver's licence or a government-issued identification. Alongside Meta's three platforms, the other social media sites affected by the ban are YouTube, X, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, Kick and Twitch. The government says the ban is aimed at protecting children from the harms of social media but critics say the move may isolate certain groups who depend on platforms for connection and push children to less-regulated corners of the internet. Communications Minister Anika Wells on Wednesday said she expected teething problems in the first few days and weeks of the ban but it was about protecting Gen Alpha — anyone under 15 years — and future generations. "With one law, we can protect Generation Alpha from being sucked into purgatory by the predatory algorithms described by the man who created the feature as behavioural cocaine," Wells said. She described youngsters as being connected to a "dopamine drip" from the moment they got a smartphone and social media accounts. YouTube, which was originally exempt from the ban but then later included, labelled the law as "rushed" and claimed that banning children from having an account — which comes with parental controls — will make its video-sharing platform "less safe". Australia's social media ban, the first of its kind in the world, is being closely watched by global leaders. The government commissioned a study earlier this year which found that 96% of Australian children aged 10-15 used social media, and that seven out of 10 of them had been exposed to harmful content such as misogynistic and violent material as well as content promoting eating disorders and suicide. One in seven also reported experiencing grooming-type behaviour from adults or older children, and more than half said they had been the victim of cyberbullying. — BBC
