Meta has reported that Facebook and Instagram removed access to 756,000 as of 30 June 2026 in response to the country’s social media ban for under-16s which came into effect in December 2025.
The update reported 462,000 Instagram accounts and 294,000 Facebook accounts removed for belonging to users below the minimum age.
That figure builds on the more than 500,000 accounts Meta pulled in the lead-up to the law taking effect, first reported back in January, with removals continuing in the months since.
The tech giant said enforcement is ongoing and the numbers will keep climbing, with results reported to the eSafety Commissioner and public updates to follow periodically.
The company has leaned on AI to scan profiles, posts, comments, bios and captions for contextual clues that an account might belong to someone under 16 including birthday shoutouts or mentions of school grades.
Reporting a suspected underage account has also been simplified for parents and the wider community, both within the apps themselves and through the Help Centre, while those reports are now bolstered by AI-driven review.
Meta claimed to have also tightened its systems to stop users re-registering after an account is removed, and updated its Apple App Store age rating to 16+ in Australia.
Beyond enforcement, Meta ran an education push across Facebook and Instagram between June and July and reached an estimated 1.3 million Australians. The push included guidance on how underage accounts are detected and removed, what happens to a teen’s account and memories and how to correct a misstated age.
Meta has claimed to back the Australian Government’s push for safer, age-appropriate online experiences and will keep investing in more reliable ways to verify age without compromising privacy.
In June, Communications Minister Anika Wells accused social media platforms of doing the “bare minimum”, as the Albanese government moved to double fines for non-compliance from $49.5 million to $99 million.
This came following reports that more than 80 per cent of under-16s still had access to social media accounts, despite the eSafety Commissioner reporting 4.7 million under-16 accounts removed across age-restricted platforms by March 2026.
