Australia blocked teens from using social media in December in a new regulation.
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Meta has issued new pleas to the Australian government to reconsider its recently enforced social media ban for under 16s, after the tech giant blocked over half a million accounts on its platforms in one month.
Australia’s Online Safety Amendment Act 2024 came into effect on Dec. 11, barring access to 10 major services including Meta’s Instagram, Alphabet’s YouTube, Bytedance’s TikTok, Reddit, Snapchat, and Elon Musk’s X.
Meta has since removed nearly 550,000 accounts believed to belong to under-16s between Dec. 4-11, it said in a blog post on Sunday. On Instagram, it removed around 330,000 accounts, around 173,500 on Facebook, and nearly 40,000 on Threads.
“As we’ve stated previously, Meta is committed to meeting its compliance obligations and is taking the necessary steps to remain compliant with the law,” Meta said in the post.
“That said, we call on the Australian government to engage with industry constructively to find a better way forward, such as incentivising all of industry to raise the standard in providing safe, privacy-preserving, age appropriate experiences online, instead of blanket bans.”
The company said it worked with OpenAge Initiative, a non profit organization, to launch age verification tolls called Age Keys — users can then verify their age via government-issued ID, financial information, face estimation, or national digital wallets.
However, it highlighted that age verification and parental approval needs to extend to the app store level, as teens use over 40 apps a week and many of these don’t use age verification tools or prioritize safety, or be in the scope of the Australian law.
“This is the only way to guarantee consistent, industry-wide protections for young people, no matter which apps they use, and to avoid 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,” it added.
Australia’s Online Safety Amendment Act 2024 came into effect on Dec. 11.
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Meta previously shared its disapproval of the new law saying “cutting teens off from their friends and communities isn’t the answer,” and emphasized that some will will find other ways to access social media sites “without the safeguards provided to registered users.”
Since the ban, many Australian teens have found ways to circumvent the law including turning to alternative social media platforms that are not yet banned including Snapchat-alternative Yope, Bytedance’s video and photo-sharing app Lemon8, and messaging platform Discord.
Additionally, other under 16s told Sky News that they’re using VPNs or their parent’s social media account.
Meta is not the only platform to question the ban. Reddit has gone as far as to launch a legal challenge against Australia saying the new law is ineffective and limits political discussion. It can isolate teens “from the ability to engage in age-appropriate community experiences (including political discussions),” Reddit said in prior comments to CNBC.
It added in its application that “the political views of children inform the electoral choices of many current electors, including their parents and their teachers, as well as others interested in the views of those soon to reach the age of maturity.”
In a video on X, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese explained that the ban would give back power to parents and families from big tech firms, and would allow “kids to be kids.”
The ban decreases the likelihood of teens being exposed to stressful or harmful content, said Australia’s eSafety Commissionerm, adding that it also shifts the responsibility on teen social media usage from parents to tech companies.
Mental health harms
Australia’s social media ban for under 16s may influence other countries to follow suit, as lawmakers and parents continue to grapple with the negative mental health impact that such platforms are having on younger users.
In 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned of a teen mental health crisis due to social media, in a report that linked social media use with increase depression, anxiety, as well as for perpetuating eating disorders, body dysmorphia and low self-esteem.
The concerns have sparked the rise of parent-led organizations worldwide that aim to restrict their children from using smartphones. Such movements include the Smartphone Free Childhood group in the U.K., Austin-based Wait Until 8th, Unplugged in Canada, No Es Momento in Mexico, and the Heads Up Alliance in Australia.
Jonathan Haidt, NYU professor and the author of “The Anxious Generation,” is a major figure in the movement to protect children from smartphones and social media. Haidt advises that teenagers shouldn’t have smartphones before the age of 14, and shouldn’t have access to social media before 16-years-old.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is hoping for a long-term mental health shift as a result of the ban, but in the immediate aftermath, results have been mixed. A BBC report that involved interviews with Australian teens found that while some have changed their habits for the better, other teens felt more isolated and disconnected without social media, or were finding workarounds.
