Meta has closed nearly 550,000 social media accounts belonging to children to comply with Australia's policy prohibiting social media use by users under the age of 16.
As reported by Engadget on Wednesday, Meta said the closure included around 330 thousand Instagram accounts, 173 thousand Facebook accounts, and 40 thousand Threads accounts identified as belonging to underage users.
"Complying with this rule will be a multi-layered process that we will continue to refine, although we remain concerned about online age determination without industry standards," Meta wrote.
Australia's ban on social media use by children under 16 came into effect on December 10, 2025, and is the first such policy in the world implemented by a democratic country.
