Just over a month since the social media ban for kids under 16 came into effect and the Australian Federal Government has revealed that more than 4.7 million accounts for under 16 year olds have been either deactivated, removed or restricted across the 10 platforms currently deemed subject to the Social Media Minimum Age legislation.
While Meta who own Facebok, Instagram and Threads revealed their own numbers earlier this week, there’s no breakdown from the government as to where those total 4.7 million accounts were held.
Across the Meta platforms the numbers were, frankly, underwhelming
| Meta Platform | SMMA Enforcement |
| 330,639 | |
| 173,497 | |
| Threads | 39,916 |
| TOTAL | 544,052 |
Now, with this government number of 4.7 million, it begs the question just how many kids were on Snapchat and Tiktok, the two platforms EFTM believe to be the most likely to have had the most accounts of them all.
To date there’s little actual anecdotal evidence that kids are being forced off these platforms in large numbers, however these Government figures suggest otherwise.
While transparency is promised, and by this announcement delivered, we should expect more detail from the eSafety Comissioner’s office, or the Minister’s office. EFTM reached out to eSafety this afternoon to seek additional info, none has been forthcoming.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says “Our Government has acted to help keep kids safe online.
“It’s encouraging that social media companies are making meaningful effort to comply with laws and keep kids off their platforms.
“Change doesn’t happen overnight. But these early signs show it’s important we’ve acted to make this change.
“We want our kids to have a childhood and parents to know we have their backs.”
Minister for Communications Anika Wells says “More than 4.7 million under-16 social media accounts being deactivated because of our world-first social media minimum age law is a huge achievement.
“While it’s early, every account deactivated could mean one extra young person with more free time to build their community and identity offline.
“We know there’s more work to do and the eSafety Commissioner is looking closely at this data to determine what it shows in terms of individual platforms’ compliance.
“We’ve said from the beginning that we weren’t expecting perfection straight away – but early figures are showing this law is making a real, meaningful difference.”
Trev is a Technology Commentator, Dad, Speaker and Rev Head.
He produces and hosts several popular podcasts, EFTM, Two Blokes Talking Tech, Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars, The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, and the Private Feed. He is the resident tech expert for Triple M on radio across Australia, and is the resident Tech Expert on Channel 9’s Today Show and appears regularly on 9 News, A Current Affair and Sky News Early Edition.
Father of three, he is often found in his Man Cave.
