Social media giant Meta has shut down about half a million accounts belonging to children in compliance with Australia's new social media law. The landmark law came into effect on December 10 and bans social media accounts for children under the age of 16. It requires big platforms including Meta, TikTok and YouTube to stop holding accounts for those under that age. The ban, which is being watched closely around the world, was justified by campaigners and the government as necessary to protect children from harmful content and algorithms. Companies including Meta have said they agree more is needed to keep young people safe online. However they continue to argue for other measures, with some experts raising similar concerns. "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," Meta said in a blog update. Meta said between December 4 and 11 it had deactivated 544,052 accounts it believed were held by users aged under 16. This included 330,639 accounts on Instagram, 173,497 on Facebook and 39,916 on Threads. They again put the argument that age verification should happen at an app store level - something they suggested lowers the burden of compliance on both regulators and the apps themselves - and that exemptions for parental approval should be created. "This is the only way to guarantee consistent, industry-wide protections for young people, no matter which apps they use, and to avoid the whack-a-mole effect of catching up with new apps that teens will migrate to in order to circumvent the social media ban law." Various governments, from the US state of Florida to the European Union, have been experimenting with limiting children's use of social media. But, along with a higher age limit of 16, Australia is the first jurisdiction to deny an exemption for parental approval in a policy like this —making its laws the world's strictest. However some experts have raised concerns that Australian kids can circumvent the ban with relative ease — either by tricking the technology that's performing the age checks, or by finding other, potentially less safe, places on the net to gather.
