Facebook and Instagram owner Meta says it has taken down more than 750,000 accounts it suspected were held by Australians aged under 16 since a world-first ban on teen accounts, and pledged further action as the company faces possible regulatory intervention.
Meta said it had deactivated 462,000 suspected underage Instagram accounts and 294,000 Facebook accounts between just before the Australian social media ban took effect in December and June. That compares with 331,000 Instagram accounts and 173,000 Facebook accounts the company said it had removed by January.
The world’s largest social media company has said it wants to comply with a law it and other platforms have publicly opposed, as Australia’s internet regulator considers enforcement action against platforms it says have failed to take sufficient steps to comply.
No other platforms have released compliance data covering the same period as Meta. However, Australian government figures and several independent studies have found that more than eight in 10 under-16s remained on social media during the ban’s first three months.
The Australian government introduced the landmark law, which came into force on Dec. 10, over concerns about the impact of social media on the physical and mental health of children and young teenagers.
As other countries consider similar age restrictions, Australia has accused platforms of intentionally setting the ban up to fail. The government has introduced legislation that would double the maximum penalty for non-compliance to A$99 million ($69.75 million) and give the regulator greater powers to obtain documents.
Representatives of Meta, TikTok, YouTube owner Google (GOOGL.O) and Snap’s Snapchat (SNAP.N) are scheduled to give evidence at a parliamentary inquiry into the changes on Friday, alongside regulatory and government officials.
“Enforcement is ongoing, and these numbers will continue to grow,” Meta said in a statement.
“We share the Australian Government’s goal of ensuring young people have safe, age-appropriate experiences online, and we are meeting our obligations under the law,” the company added.
An Australian trial of age-assurance technology in 2025 found that products available on the market could effectively support an age restriction. Most major platforms, including Meta’s, have introduced photo-based age-estimation software, although they say they typically first use age inference, or estimate a person’s age based on their online activity.
Meta said it was using AI to analyse user profiles for “contextual clues that an account may belong to someone under 16, such as birthday celebrations or mentions of school grades” and to assess reports of suspected underage accounts.
The company said it had also removed the option for users to make further attempts to create an account if their previous account had been deleted.
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Faustine Ngila is the AI Editor at Impact Newswire, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He is an award-winning journalist specializing in artificial intelligence, blockchain, and emerging technologies.
He previously worked as a global technology reporter at Quartz in New York and Digital Frontier in London, where he covered innovation, startups, and the global digital economy.
With years of experience reporting on cutting-edge technologies, Faustine focuses on AI developments, industry trends, and the impact of technology on society.
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