Meta begins deactivating accounts belonging to under 16s

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Australia's world-first social media ban is now a reality for some teenagers. Tech giant meta has begun removing accounts belonging to under 16s a week ahead of the government's deadline. There are already early signs of the lengths young people will go to in order to bypass the new controls.

Transcript

00:00Hundreds of thousands of Australian teenagers were bracing for the worst.

00:07Oh, it's worked. That's unexpected actually.

00:11But for many, like 15-year-old Lachlan, it didn't come today.

00:14Well, I mean, it's a relief, but realistically, who knows if it's just going to end at some point today or tomorrow.

00:21Instagram, Facebook and Threads are the first platforms to start purging accounts belonging to under-16s,

00:27ahead of the government's December 10 deadline.

00:29It's going to be annoying to sort of log on and just be powerless, really.

00:35Not all teens are against it.

00:37I feel like it's the best thing for our generation.

00:39Despite that, 15-year-old Riley has so far slipped under the radar.

00:43All it took was a lie about her date of birth.

00:46I did that when I cited my Snapchat and my Instagram accounts.

00:49Meta says there's still more work to do in tracking down under-16s like Riley.

00:54But not everyone is planning to go quietly.

00:56I know that a lot of people have been getting around the Snapchat facial verification just because it thinks they're over-16.

01:04Thank you for tuning in.

01:0515-year-old podcaster Jack has set up a new Instagram account with the help of his mum.

01:10Which is a great way and it's how it always should have been.

01:13Perhaps the most direct way young people are getting around the ban is by joining new platforms.

01:18Apps like Yope and Lemonade have shot up the charts this week.

01:21But the government is warning the list of banned services could grow.

01:25And both those platforms are now in the regulator's sights.

01:28So the irony now is this could actually create a lot more work for parents just to keep up with things.

01:33Particularly if they want to keep their kids off the platforms.

01:36Which after all was the original point.

01:39Angela Voipierre, ABC News.

01:41Is.

01:44I gold the project.

01:45In recent!

01:46ToStrple, I was 15-13s.

01:48Do not need to żebyhler out process.

01:50But…

01:51shocking stuff.

01:52So the reason now I was doing first of all was the only thing,

01:54where does not have a plan of getting ahead?

01:55And because I thought of myself getting in a condition!

01:57Let me show you all COOL?

01:58Do not have a plan of responsibility to be moving past the end.

02:00Number two, the jesus of the dog,

02:01Doctor will be brought alongside Yope over the days.

02:02tripleξ.

02:03So Charlie and Leandro have been a shooter with some of the governor's chiefs like

02:05on families.

02:06Clに often mistakenly on families.

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