CALIFORNIA (Kashmir English): Instagram owner Meta and other social media platforms have announced that they will ban under-16 accounts under the new Australian law once it takes effect on December 10.
The announcement from the firms came on Tuesday which said they will comply with a ban on users under the age of 16 and start deactivating such accounts after December 10.
In parliament, Meta, Snapchat owner Snap, and TikTok owner ByteDance said they continued to believe the ban would not protect young people adding they would soon reach out to more than a million underage account holders to prepare them for the change.
The development comes amid growing concern about youth mental health around the world. Under the Australian law, platforms must take “reasonable steps” to block users aged less than 16 or face a fine of up to A$49.5 million ($32.5 million).
The social media platforms previously argued that a possible ban would drive young people to more dangerous corners of the internet that are poorly monitored, as well as deprive young people of social contact. Snap and Google-owned YouTube also argued they aren’t social media companies.
“We don’t agree, but we accept and we will abide by the law,” Snap’s senior vice president of global policy and platform operations, Jennifer Stout, said via a video link.
Meta, others to comply with new Australian law
TikTok’s public policy lead for Australia, Ella Woods-Joyce, reiterated the Chinese-owned platform’s opposition to the ban but said “TikTok will comply with the law and meet its obligations”. “We are on track to meet our compliance,” she said.
For users wrongfully tagged to be under 16, TikTok and Meta said they would refer them to a third-party age-estimation tool.
Snap said it was still working on a solution for users who believed they were incorrectly blocked.
