‘Soon, you’ll no longer be able to use Facebook’, Meta said in messages it sent to young people ahead of the social media ban.
Meta will prevent Australians younger than 16 from accessing Facebook and Instagram from December 4, as Canberra prepares to enforce a sweeping new social media law that has sparked concerns from young people and advocates.
The US tech giant said it would start removing teenagers and children from its platforms ahead of the new Australian social media ban on users under 16 coming into effect on December 10.
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The Australian government is preparing to enforce the law with fines of up to 49.5 million Australian Dollars (US$32 million) for social media companies even as critics say the changes have been rushed through without addressing questions around privacy, and the effects on young people’s mental health and access to information.
“From today, Meta will be notifying Australian users it understands to be aged 13-15 that they will lose access to Instagram, Threads and Facebook,” Meta said in a statement.
“Meta will begin blocking new under-16 accounts and revoking existing access from 4 December, expecting to remove all known under-16s by 10 December.”
There are around 350,000 Instagram users aged between 13-15 in Australia and around 150,000 Facebook accounts, according to government figures.
Meta has started warning impacted users that they will soon be locked out.
“Soon, you’ll no longer be able to use Facebook and your profile won’t be visible to you or others,” reads a message sent to users that Meta believes to be under 16.
“When you turn 16, we’ll let you know that you can start using Facebook again.”
In addition to Facebook and Instagram, the Australian government has said that the ban will be applied to several other social media platforms, including Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube.
Ban ‘doesn’t add up’
A number of young people and advocates have expressed concerns about the implementation of the new ban, including journalist and founder of youth news service 6 News Australia Leo Puglisi, 18, who told an Australian senate inquiry that young people “deeply care” about the ban and its potential implications.
Puglisi says that many of the people who engage with 6 News are young people who find their content on social media.
“I think young people do have the right to be informed,” he told the inquiry.
“We’re saying that a 15 year old can’t access any news or political information on social media. I just don’t think that that adds up.”
Australian Senator David Shoebridge, has expressed concerns that “an estimated 2.4 million young people will be kicked off social media accounts… just as school holidays start.”
“I’m deeply concerned about the impacts on the ban including on young people’s mental health and privacy,” Shoebridge wrote in a recent post on X.
John Pane, from Electronic Frontiers Australia, also told a senate inquiry that the new legislation creates new risks, while trying to address other issues.
While Pane acknowledged the ban seeks to address young people potentially seeing “unsuitable content” online, he says it also creates a new “far greater, systemic risk” of “potential mass collection of children’s and adults’ identity data.”
This will further increase “the data stores and financial positions of big tech and big data and increasing cyber risk on a very significant scale,” Pane said.
Since most Australians aged under 16 don’t yet have official government ID, social media companies are planning to require some users to verify their age by recording videos of themselves.
Other countries mull similar bans
There is keen interest in whether Australia’s sweeping restrictions can work as regulators around the globe wrestle with the mixed dangers and benefits of social media.
In New Zealand, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is planning to introduce a similar bill to restrict children’s social media use.
Indonesia has also said it is preparing legislation to protect young people from “physical, mental, or moral perils”.
In Europe, the Dutch government has advised parents to forbid children under 15 from using social media apps like TikTok and Snapchat.
