Tech giant Meta has begun removing minors below 16 years of age in Australia from its platforms Instagram, Threads and Facebook ahead of the country’s world-first youth social media ban.

“While we are working hard to remove all users who we understand to be under the age of 16 by 10 December, compliance with the law will be an ongoing and multilayered process,” a Meta spokesperson said on Thursday.

Australia requires 10 major online platforms, also including TikTok and YouTube, to block underage users by December 10, when the new law comes into force.

Companies face fines of 49.5 million Australian dollars ($32m) if they fail to take “reasonable steps” to comply.

Hundreds of thousands of adolescents are likely to be affected by the ban, with Instagram alone reporting about 350,000

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