The American tech giant Meta announced today that it will start deleting the accounts of Australian users under the age of 16 on its platforms Instagram, Threads, and Facebook before completely banning them from using social media on December 10, in a world-first move. A spokesperson for the group said, "We are working on deleting all accounts of users we believe are under 16 by December 10, but compliance with the law will be an ongoing process in stages." They added that those whose accounts are deleted will be able to recover and reuse them upon turning 16, with the same content that was in them before deletion. This measure is expected to affect hundreds of thousands of minors and also applies to platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and Twitch. Instagram alone has about 350,000 Australian users aged 13 to 15. However, WhatsApp, owned by Meta, Pinterest, and the online gaming platform Roblox are currently exempt. The giant video streaming platform YouTube yesterday called the impending ban on Australian teenagers from using social media "hasty," but confirmed that all users in the covered age group will be automatically deleted on December 10. The company will rely on the age users provided in their Google accounts, which is used to log in to YouTube.
