Landmark social media ban bites as teens lose accounts
Almost five million social media accounts have been disabled or restricted since world-first age restrictions came into force in Australia.
Figures released by the federal government on Friday show the extent of the push to better protect children under 16 from online harm.
The e-Safety commission has been closely monitoring social media platforms since December 10, when the laws came into force.
It is stated that as of December 12, more than 4.7 million accounts were disabled, removed or restricted.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the mass exodus of children from social media was a positive step.
“It is encouraging that social media companies are making meaningful efforts to comply with the law and keep children off their platforms,” he said in a statement.
“Change doesn’t happen overnight, but these early signs show it’s important we take action to make this change happen.”
By law, social media platforms are required to take reasonable steps to prevent children under 16 from accessing their applications.
Australia was the first country to take such a step, inspiring other countries including the UK, Malaysia and New Zealand to consider similar age restrictions.
While some young people have managed to bypass age limits that include digital ID, facial scans and complex algorithms, data shows that many young people have already been kicked off the platforms.
Communications Minister Anika Wells said eSafety will examine the data to determine which platforms are performing well and which need improvement.
“We know there is more work to be done, and the eSafety Commissioner is looking closely at this data to determine what it shows in terms of compliance of individual platforms,” he said in a statement.
“Although it is still early days, deactivating each account could mean an additional young person has more free time to build their community and identity offline.”
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said this week it had closed more than half a million Australian user accounts before the ban.
Meta said that between December 4 and 11, it closed 330,639 Instagram accounts, 173,497 Facebook accounts and 39,916 Threads accounts believed to belong to people under 16 years of age.
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