Canberra, December 4 – The technology company Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, began today to apply access restrictions in Australia for users under 16 years of age, in order to comply with a new country legislation.
The Senate of this Oceanic nation approved, in November 2024, a law aimed at strengthening the protection of minors online, which will come into effect on December 10.
A spokesperson for Meta confirmed that, in view of complying with the new regulation, Australian children and teenagers will be allowed to keep and download their digital history on the three platforms before the mentioned date.
Once these users turn 16 years old, Meta stated its intention to restore their access with the possibility of recovering all content as it currently exists.
TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, YouTube, X, and Instagram are among the platforms that could face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars, equivalent to 33 million US dollars, for systemic failures if children or teenagers are found to have accounts on these social networks.
The strongest defense of the proposed regulation in Parliament was based on health and safety, prioritizing the younger generation.
Almost two-thirds of Australians aged 14 to 17 have seen extremely harmful content online, including drug abuse, suicide or self-harm, as well as violent material, explained Australia's Communications Minister Michelle Rowland before the Senate.
She also added that a quarter of the population in that age range has been exposed to content promoting unsafe eating habits.
Australia will implement, in a few days, one of the world’s strictest regulations on the use of digital platforms and is viewed by other countries as a benchmark in the field.
