- Meta took care of deleting accounts of under 16s in Australia
- More than 500,000 accounts disappeared from Facebook, Instagram and Threads
- Meta wants to do even more to improve age verification
The fallout from the Australian government’s decision to ban under-16s from social media continues: Meta has released an update on steps being taken to adhere to the new rules, while reiterating its belief that there are better ways to protect teenagers.
On December 11, a day after the ban came into effect, Meta said it had removed access to 544,052 accounts believed to belong to under-16s in Australia. This issue covers the Instagram, Facebook and Threads platforms, all owned by Meta.
Affected young users were effectively given 14 days’ notice to upload their information and – presumably – let their contacts know where it might be found in the future (Facebook Messenger is actually exempt from the ban, for example).
Australian authorities introduced the ban in the interests of children’s safety, citing concerns about screen time, inappropriate contact from adults and exposure to harmful content, including content depicting violence, bullying and mental health issues.
“A Better Way Forward”
Meta also takes advantage of the update to express its “concerns” regarding this new ban. “Some of the early impacts we have seen as a result of the law suggest that it is not achieving its objectives of increasing the safety and wellbeing of young Australians,” the Meta team writes.
“We still think there is a better way forward, which is age verification and parental approval at the App Store level,” he adds.
This would put the onus on Google and Apple to verify the age of users. Meta is also supporting a new nonprofit called the OpenAge Initiative, which aims to standardize age verification processes and prevent teens from moving to less well-regulated apps that might not be as diligent when it comes to verifying the ages of their users.
Meta says it will continue to “engage constructively” with the Australian government to “find a better way forward”. He doesn’t seem to oppose age verification per se, but wants it to be more closely regulated and consistent across all platforms.
The whole business model of social media apps is of course about getting as many people as possible to spend as much time in the apps as possible. Despite this, these companies feel the pressure to take on more responsibility: over the past few years, Meta has added several features aimed at younger users, designed to keep them safe online.
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