US tech giant Meta has claimed that it has shut down almost 5,50,000 accounts in Australia after country’s landmark social media ban for children under years of age. The company has closed around 3,30,000 Instagram accounts, 1,73,000 Facebook accounts, and almost 40,000 Threads accounts belonging to users believed to be under 16 years of age.
Why Meta is doing so ?
The government of Australia made a law to ban social media for age under 16 years. The law came into effect on 10th December 2025, mandate services such as ByteDance Ltd’s TikTok and Instagram keep under-16s off their platforms or face a fine of $33 million.
This law marks Australia as the world’s first democratic country to take such actions in response against growing concerns about social media’s disadvantage.
The social media giant Meta continued to express its opposition to the ban of social media platforms for kids underage of 16 and the company also expressed resistance against the standard age-based verification and more industry-wide protections for young people no matter which app they use, as it flags the surge in downloads of alternative social media platforms as an area of concern.
Meta said in a post that “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”
Other countries with social media ban for kids
Apart from Australia some other countries which are planning or have banned social media platforms for kids include Malaysia, Norway, Denmark, and France. The enforcement of social media ban for kids under 16 in Malaysia will begin in 2026, the Norway is moving towards an absolute minimum age of 15, raising it from 13 with strict age verification. Denmark announced a ban for kids under 15 in 2025.
The US and European Union follow Parental consent Laws in which children under a certain age usually 13 to 16 years cannot use such platform without parent’s permission.
Also Read: X Hits Cleanup Button: 600 Accounts Deleted, Elon Musk’s Platform Vows Compliance In India
Syed Ziyauddin is a media and international relations enthusiast with a strong academic and professional foundation. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Media from Jamia Millia Islamia and a Master’s in International Relations (West Asia) from the same institution.
He has work with organizations like ANN Media, TV9 Bharatvarsh, NDTV and Centre for Discourse, Fusion, and Analysis (CDFA) his core interest includes Tech, Auto and global affairs.
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