Maya Robertson
Meta says it has removed access to more than 750,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts in Australia that it assessed as belonging to people under 16, as the company continues enforcing the country’s social media age restrictions. The figure covers enforcement through June 30, 2026.
Australia’s social media minimum-age rules took effect in December 2025, requiring covered platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent children under 16 from holding accounts. Meta said the latest total includes more than 500,000 accounts removed in the lead-up to the law taking effect, alongside additional accounts identified and removed in subsequent months.
Meta said enforcement remains ongoing and that the total will continue to increase. The company reports its enforcement activity to Australia’s eSafety Commissioner and said it plans to publish further updates.
Artificial intelligence is playing a central role in Meta’s age-detection process. The company said its systems analyze information including posts, comments, bios and captions for contextual signals suggesting that an account belongs to someone under 16. Examples can include references to birthdays or school grades.
Meta has also introduced AI-assisted reviews of reports concerning suspected underage accounts. According to the company, adding AI to the review process has improved accuracy and shortened resolution times compared with relying on human review alone.
Other measures include making it easier for parents and other users to report suspected underage accounts and strengthening systems designed to prevent people from creating new accounts after an earlier account has been removed. Meta also changed the Apple App Store age rating for its apps to 16+ in Australia.
Alongside enforcement, Meta ran an education campaign across Facebook and Instagram between June and July. The campaign reached approximately 1.3 million people in Australia and provided parents with information about how Meta identifies under-16 accounts, what happens to an account and its stored memories following removal, and how users can correct an inaccurate stated age.
Despite the removals, questions remain about how effectively Australia’s restrictions are preventing teenagers from accessing social platforms. Social Media Today cited recent eSafety Commission findings showing that 81.5% of underage users were still accessing age-restricted social media services.
50.2% of children who still had an age-restricted account said the platform had not asked them to confirm their age, while 18.2% said the platform had incorrectly estimated their age.
Meta, meanwhile, continues to argue that age verification should not be handled independently by every social platform. The company is calling for a single, reliable age signal at the operating system or app store level, which would allow a user’s age to be verified when setting up a device or downloading an app rather than repeatedly across individual services.
The latest figures highlight both sides of Australia’s attempt to restrict social media access for children under 16: platforms are removing hundreds of thousands of accounts, but the regulator’s data indicates that a substantial proportion of underage users are still finding ways to access restricted services.
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