Australia's Social Media Ban Drives Teens to Less Regulated Platforms, Meta Warns

Australia implemented a ban on social media access for teenagers under 16 years old on December 10.

Meta, the technology conglomerate, announced on Wednesday that Australia's social media prohibition for under-16s is directing young users toward platforms with less regulatory oversight, ultimately compromising their safety.

"We've consistently expressed concerns that this inadequately developed legislation could drive teenagers to platforms or applications with fewer regulations. We're now witnessing these concerns becoming reality," the American corporation stated.

Elon Musk's X has indicated it would adhere to Australia's social media restrictions for younger users.

Less prominent messaging and image-sharing applications such as Lemon8 and yope, which are currently not included in the social media prohibition, have experienced significant increases in downloads across Australia.

Meta emphasized that many alternative applications fail to provide equivalent safety features, including specialized accounts for teenagers, which their company had developed.

"While we will fulfill our legal obligations, we maintain concerns that this legislation will reduce safety for teenagers."