Technology giant Meta has initiated an unprecedented digital alert system, directly contacting hundreds of thousands of young Australians with a stark warning: download your digital histories or lose them forever.
The Countdown to Exclusion Begins
Starting Thursday 20 November 2025, Meta began sending SMS and email notifications to young account holders across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. The message is clear: they have just two weeks to preserve their digital memories before being locked out of their accounts.
This dramatic move comes in response to the Australian government's groundbreaking legislation announced two weeks ago. From December 10, multiple social media platforms including Meta's services plus Snapchat, TikTok, X, and YouTube must take reasonable steps to exclude Australian account holders younger than 16.
California-based Meta has become the first major tech company to outline its compliance strategy. The company confirmed that from December 4, suspected children will begin losing access to their accounts.
Scale and Verification Challenges
The numbers involved are substantial. Meta estimates approximately 350,000 Australians aged 13-15 use Instagram, with another 150,000 in the same age bracket on Facebook. This represents half a million young people facing digital exclusion in a country with a population of 28 million.
For those 16 and older who mistakenly receive exclusion notices, Meta has established an age verification process through Yoti Age Verification. Users can provide government-issued identity documents or submit a video selfie to prove their age.
However, experts have raised concerns about the verification technology. Terry Flew, co-director of Sydney University's Centre for AI, Trust and Governance, revealed that such facial-recognition systems have a failure rate of at least 5%.
In the absence of a government-mandated ID system, we're always looking at second-best solutions around these things, Flew told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Industry Response and Parental Guidance
The government has warned platforms against demanding that all account holders prove they're over 15, describing this as an unreasonable response. Officials maintain that platforms already possess sufficient data about many account holders to ascertain they aren't young children.
Failure to comply could result in staggering penalties - platforms face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars (£26 million) for not taking reasonable steps to exclude underage users.
Meta's vice president and global head of safety, Antigone Davis, expressed preference for a different approach. We believe a better approach is required: a standard, more accurate, and privacy-preserving system, such as OS/app store-level age verification, Davis stated.
Dany Elachi, founder of the parents' group Heaps Up Alliance that lobbied for the social media age restriction, urged parents to help children plan how they'll spend hours previously absorbed by social media.
When everybody misses out, nobody misses out. That's the theory, Elachi said. We hope parents are going to be very positive about this and try to help their children see all the potential possibilities that are now open to them.
