8 plaintiffs sue Meta in Australia over alleged harm to children and teenagers
Key Facts
Meta Platforms faces a class action in Australia filed by law firm MinterEllison on behalf of 8 lead plaintiffs over alleged harm to children and teenagers from using its social media platforms, according to Capital Brief. The case against the company and others was filed in the New South Wales registry of the Federal Court of Australia on 9 October 2026, according to the Australian courts portal. The lawsuit is classified as a consumer protection case, with allegations including the company's knowledge of potential harm to children and features on its platforms designed to encourage engagement. David Taylor, a partner at the firm, said the allegations concerned "knowledge of potential harm to children and features designed to encourage engagement," according to Capital Brief. The lead plaintiffs represented by the firm have not been named. A court order published on Monday imposed confidentiality on details of their identities and initial claims, according to the same source.
The lawsuit comes against the backdrop of Australia's enforcement of restrictions on minors holding social media accounts, under legislation that took effect on 10 December 2025, according to Australia's eSafety Commissioner. The rules require covered platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent Australians under 16 from holding accounts. This age threshold relates to Australia's account restrictions, while the class action addresses alleged harm to children and teenagers in separate legal proceedings. Companies that breach minimum-age obligations face civil penalties of up to A$109.2 million, according to the commissioner. These penalties are imposed by courts for breaches of age obligations and are distinct from the plaintiffs' claims in the harm case against Meta.
As part of the enforcement of account restrictions, Meta said its account deactivations in Australia included suspected underage accounts on Instagram and Facebook, according to a Reuters report published in August 2026. The company said it had deactivated 462,000 Instagram accounts by June. On Facebook, the reported total for the same period was 294,000 suspected underage accounts. By comparison, the company had reported removing 331,000 Instagram accounts by January, according to the same report. It had also reported removing 173,000 Facebook accounts by January, putting the figures it reported through June above its previously announced levels on both platforms.
Alongside the account deactivations, the Australian government confirmed that the eSafety Commissioner was investigating potential non-compliance with age restrictions at Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube. The investigations thus cover Meta's platforms alongside other social media services and concern their compliance with restrictions on minors' accounts. In its March 2026 compliance report, the commissioner identified practices that raised concerns about age verification mechanisms. These included allowing children under 16 to make repeated attempts using the same verification method until they obtained a result indicating they were 16 or older. The commissioner said amendments to enforcement powers included giving it authority to compel individuals to attend and answer questions relevant to compliance investigations.
On broader digital safety legislation, the Australian government has introduced a digital duty of care bill, according to Australia's Department of Infrastructure. The bill proposes requiring services including games, social media platforms and AI chatbots to meet a set of minimum safety standards. The regulatory proposal also includes giving social media users a choice over the content shown in their main feeds, according to a statement by Australia's communications minister. Under this approach, platforms would offer a choice between algorithmically recommended content and content from pages and people users choose to follow. The feed-choice rules are subject to public consultation under the "My Feed, My Way" initiative, according to the Department of Infrastructure. The consultation closes on 5 November 2026 at 23:59 Australian Eastern Daylight Time.