Instagram to start closing accounts of Australian under-16s

Instagram is going to start the closing down the accounts of young teenagers in Australia ahead of a social media ban for under-16s in the country.

Last year the Australian government passed a new law which aims to stop the children from using some online platforms.

The law makes Australia the first country in the world to bring in this kind of ban for under-16s.

Meta, which is the company that owns Instagram, said it has started to contact some of its younger users to tell them their accounts will start to be shut down from 4 December.

The ban starts on 10 December and affects lots of different platforms including Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube - although YouTube Kids isn't.

If social media companies don't follow the rules, then they will be fined up to £25.7m ($50m Australian dollars).

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the ban is needed to protect young people from the "harms" of social media and is about "letting kids be kids".

Meta and other firms are against the ban, but said they will stick to the rules.

Meta said it has started to contact users it believes are between the age of 13 and 15 to tell them their account will be shut down.

Australia's internet regulator, the team which is works to make the internet safe, believes there are around 150,000 Facebook users and 350,000 teens in that age range.

They will get the chance to save their posts, videos and messages before their accounts are closed.

The company said that teenagers who say they are old enough can challenge the closure of their account using a "video selfie" as part of a facial age scan or could provide an ID proving their age.