Tech giants have blocked 4.7 million accounts under Australia’s world-first social media ban for under-16s, the country’s online safety watchdog announced Friday, January 16th.
The action comes as part of efforts to enforce the law, which came into force on December 10th, 2025.
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said initial figures showed that platforms were taking meaningful steps to remove underage users:
It is clear that eSafety’s regulatory guidance and engagement with platforms is already delivering significant outcomes.
The legislation requires major platforms, including Meta, TikTok, and YouTube, to prevent underage users from holding accounts. Companies that fail to take “reasonable steps” to comply face fines of Aus$49.5 million (€28.4 million).
Meta reported last week that it had removed 331,000 underage accounts from Instagram, 173,000 from Facebook, and 40,000 from Threads in the week leading up to December 11th. Despite these measures, Meta repeated its call for app stores to require age verification and parental approval before under-16s can download an app.
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner said it takes time to verify ages accurately, but it expects platforms to improve their performance.
