On Monday, the American company Meta called on Australia to reconsider its decision to ban people under the age of 16 from using social networks such as Facebook or TikTok. At the same time, however, the technology giant announced that it had already blocked more than 544,000 accounts based on the new Australian law. TASR writes about it according to an AFP report.
Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta said it removed 331,000 underage accounts from Instagram, 173,000 from Facebook and 40,000 from Threads in the week to December 11. She added that she was committed to following the law.
Meta criticizes the law
“However, we urge the Australian Government to engage constructively with the industry and find a better way, such as incentivising the entire sector to raise standards in providing safe, privacy-protecting and age-appropriate online experiences, rather than blanket bans,” Meta said in a statement.
The company reiterated its previous call for app stores to be required to verify the age of users and also obtain parental consent before under-16s download an app.
Meta also said parents and experts fear the ban will isolate young people from online communities and drive some of them to less regulated apps and darker corners of the internet. It also said the initial impacts of the legislation “suggest it is not meeting its objectives to improve the safety and wellbeing of young Australians”.
The California-based company added that it helped found the nonprofit OpenAge Initiative, which has launched age verification tools called AgeKeys to be used by the affected platforms.
Sanctions for non-compliance with the law
The law came into effect in Australia on December 10, and companies that fail to take “reasonable steps” to comply with the legislation face a fine of A$49.5 million (about €28.4 million).
