CANBERRA, Oct. 28 — Social media companies TikTok, Meta and Snap told the Australian parliament on Tuesday that they will comply with the nation’s world-first social media ban for under-16s.
Under laws passed by the Australian government in 2024, children younger than 16 will be blocked from holding accounts on social media platforms from Dec. 10, 2025.
Addressing a senate inquiry on Tuesday, executives from TikTok parent company ByteDance, Snapchat owner Snap and Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said they would comply with the ban and start deactivating children’s accounts once the law takes effect.
Jennifer Stout, Snap’s senior vice president of global policy, told the inquiry via video link that the company would comply despite its opposition to the law.
Snapchat and the Google-owned YouTube had previously argued that they are not social media platforms and should be exempt from the ban.
Stout said on Tuesday that the ban could drive teenagers towards other messaging services that lack Snapchat’s safety and privacy protections.
“We will comply with the law, even though we believe it has been unevenly applied,” she said. Meta’s policy director for Australia and New Zealand, Mia Garlick, told the inquiry that the company would soon approach around 450,000 under-16 Facebook and Instagram account holders in Australia, offering a choice between deleting their data or storing it until they turn 16.
ByteDance and Snap said they would take similar steps. Under the legislation for the ban, social media companies that fail to take reasonable steps to prevent children younger than 16 from accessing their platforms will face fines worth up to 49.5 million Australian dollars (32.4 million U.S. dollars). (Xinhua)
