Tech giants won't bat an eyelid at the fines enforced under Australia's social media ban but they will start sweating if other nations follow suit, a former Facebook executive says.

Children younger than 16 will be booted off Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Kick and Reddit when Australia's world-leading ban kicks in on December 10.

The onus is on social media companies, and not parents, to take "reasonable steps" to prevent teens having accounts.

Chief executive of AI startup Omniscient, Stephen Scheeler, who led Facebook's Australian office from 2013 to 2017, said fines of up to $50 million for systemic breaches were insufficient to encourage compliance.

He said the amount was the equivalent of a parking ticket for billion-dollar companies.

"It takes Meta abo

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