Meta says it has removed access to more than 750,000 under-16 accounts in Australia as enforcement continues

Meta says it has removed access to more than 750,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts in Australia that it assessed belonged to people below the minimum age of 16, a key step in complying with Australia’s social media restrictions for minors. The company said the figure, as of June 30, 2026, includes removals both before and after the law took effect.

Meta said the total includes more than 500,000 accounts removed in the lead-up to the law taking effect, which it previously reported in January, along with accounts it continued to remove in the months since. The company emphasized that enforcement is ongoing and said the numbers are expected to keep growing as it continues to refine its approach.

The company described its enforcement as part of a broader process rather than a one-time check. Meta said identifying age online is not a single test, and that the counts reflect a series of improvements it made during 2026, building on an approach it said it outlined in May and further explained for families in June.

Meta also said it ran an education campaign across Facebook and Instagram in Australia between June and July, reaching approximately 1.3 million people. The campaign was designed to point users to practical guidance on how the platform detects and removes under-16 accounts, what a teen’s account and memories would look like after enforcement actions, and how to check and correct a stated age.

In the same update, Meta argued that enforcement alone is not sufficient unless removals are consistent and the age announcement is reliable across apps. The company said its primary concern is that platforms should not take inconsistent approaches to removing teens, and it called for a single reliable age announcement delivered at the operating system or app store level.

Meta said it would be easier, in its view, for age to be verified once when a young person sets up their device or downloads an app, rather than being repeatedly assessed across the dozens of apps a person uses. The company said this approach could strengthen protections while reducing repeated friction for users and families.

Meta framed the policy goal as aligning with the Australian Government’s aim of ensuring young people have safe, age-appropriate experiences online. The company said it believes a young person using social media without a parent or guardian knowing is harder to support, not easier, and it reiterated that keeping parents informed is part of how protections are expected to work.

On the regulatory side, Meta said it reports its enforcement activity to the eSafety Commissioner and will continue to publish periodic updates for transparency. At the same time, the company indicated it is still working on technical and operational improvements, including new ways to understand age more reliably while protecting privacy.

Still, Meta did not provide granular details in the update about the methods it uses to assess age or the specific thresholds and controls behind removals. It also did not disclose how many accounts were reviewed but not removed, nor whether removals correlate to specific detection indicates, user reports, or particular fraud patterns. For now, the update is primarily a compliance and transparency statement about results, education outreach, and the company’s broader view of how age verification should work.