4.7M social media accounts removed under Australia's new youth ban

Jan. 16 (UPI) -- More than 4.7 million social media accounts belonging to Australians under the age of 16 have been removed since the nation's new social media youth ban went into effect last month, Canberra announced Friday. "Our government has acted to help keep kids safe online," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement . "Change doesn't happen overnight. But these early signs show it's important we've acted to make this change. We want our kids to have a childhood and parents to know we have their backs." Albanese introduced the law in 2024, calling it "world-leading," with the intent to protect Australia's youth from harms presented online, including Internet addiction. Related Elon Musk's xAI to stop allowing Grok to undress images of real people Bill allowing victims of deepfake porn to sue passes Senate Britain launches investigation into X for explicit deepfakes by Grok The ban went into effect Dec. 11, ordering the most popular social media platforms to remove accounts held by those under the age of 16 and to block the creation of new accounts. Some social media companies, including Meta -- which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads -- began preemptively removing accounts held by those under the age of 16 and blocking the creation of new accounts for these youth starting Dec. 4. Violations are to be enforced against the companies, not users. Platforms affected are: Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, X, Reddit, YouTube, Twitch, Kick and Snapchat. Others, such as Bluesky, Steam and WhatsApp, could be added if they gain significantly more users or are otherwise deemed social media instead of gaming or peer-to-peer communication services. The preliminary figures announced Friday were what the Albanese government called a first tranche of information provided to the eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant. There are approximately 2.5 million Australians between the ages of 8 and 15, according to statistics from the government, which said that in 2025, 84% of children between 8 and 12 had social media accounts. "Now Australian parents can be confident that their kids can have their childhood back," Minister for Communications Anika Wells said Friday in a Press conference in Murarrie, Queensland. "They can discover and learn who they are before these platforms assume who they are. They can spend a summer making real-world connections with each other, with their siblings, with their parents, skateboarding, writing, reading, art, music. I don't care what it is, but it's off the screen and discovering for themselves who they are and forging connections in the real world." Grant told reporters that all 10 social media platforms were in compliance, and no other services were being considered to be added for now. Given the number of youth and the number of accounts removed, journalists asked if the numbers were at all inflated. Grant said no, explaining that more than 95% of 8 to 15 year-olds were on YouTube. "I'm very confident these numbers are right, but we will continue to check," she said. The law has attracted...

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