Meta, the owner of social media giants Facebook and Instagram, has removed over 750,000 accounts suspected to be under 16 years old in Australia since a world-first measure was implemented on teen accounts, it said on 13th August, warning of further measures if it receives “regulatory action” orders.

It said it had taken down 462,000 “suspect” Instagram accounts, and 294,000 “suspect” Facebook accounts, between just before the Australian social media ban went into effect in December and June, as compared with 331,000 Instagram accounts and 173,000 Facebook accounts removed by January.

The world’s largest social media company has said it wants to ⁠comply with a law it and other platforms have vocally opposed, just as Australia’s internet regulator considers an enforcement lawsuit ​against platforms, including some that Meta owns, that it says have failed to take sufficient steps to comply with the law.

Meta’s data doesn’t compare with this period in available compliance statistics for other platforms, while data from the Australian government and other independent research has found that more than eight out of 10 under-16s continued to be on social media in the first three months of the ban.

The Australian government introduced the groundbreaking legislation on account of its worry over social media’s effect on the physical and mental well-being of children and young teens, which took effect Dec. 10.

With other countries around the world considering similar age restrictions, Australia has accused the platforms of intentionally setting the ban ‌up ⁠to fail, and has introduced a law to double the maximum penalty for non-compliance to A$99 million ($69.75 million) and give the regulator greater document discovery powers.

PARLIAMENTARY HEARING ON FRIDAY

On Friday, the heads of Meta, TikTok and the owner of YouTube, Google, and Snap’s Snapchat, are expected to appear before a parliamentary inquiry into the updates, along with government and regulatory officials.

Enforcement is ongoing, and these numbers will increase as time goes on, Meta said in its statement.

The company said it had a “commitment” to ensuring that young people have age-appropriate and safe experiences online, the same as the Australian Government does under the law.

The products available in the market could be effective at helping to support a ban, according to a 2025 Australian trial of age assurance technology. Most of the big platforms (including Meta’s) implemented photo-based age estimate software, though they tend to first make an age estimate, or inference, based on a user’s 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 analyse reports about suspected underage accounts. The company added that it had removed the option for a person to make more attempts ​to set up an account if their previous account was deleted.