Meta blocks 756,000 Australian underage accounts

Meta has blocked 756,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts in Australia that the company identified as belonging to users under 16 years of age. These measures were implemented to comply with the Australian Online Safety (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024, which came into effect in December.

The deactivated accounts include over 500,000 profiles that Meta had already removed prior to the law's enforcement. The company reported removing 462,000 suspected Instagram accounts and 294,000 suspected Facebook accounts. Meta did not disclose the number of underage Threads accounts removed.

Meta stated that its enforcement efforts are ongoing and will be reported to the eSafety Commissioner. The company utilizes AI to analyze profile data, searching for contextual clues such as mentions of school or birthday celebrations that may indicate a user is underage. Users can also report suspected underage accounts.

These actions occur as Australia's internet regulator investigates Meta, Google, Snapchat, and TikTok for potential breaches of the law. Australia has also doubled the maximum penalty for social media companies failing to comply with the ban on under-16s.

Meta has expressed concerns about inconsistent approaches among tech giants in removing underage users and advocates for operating system or app store-level age verification, suggesting a single, reliable age signal verified once at the device or app store level.