Meta’s Teen Ban Is About to Hit — Here’s How to Save Your Content Before It’s Too Late

Hundreds of thousands of Australian teens now have less than two weeks to download their Instagram, Facebook and Threads data before losing access to their accounts.

Australia’s world-first social media ban for under-16s officially begins on December 10, but Meta has confirmed it will begin removing accounts a week early — from December 4. Anyone Meta believes to be under 16 will be locked out unless they’ve already exported their data.

Here’s exactly how to download your content before the cutoff.

How to Download Your Meta Data

You can export your information through the Meta Accounts Centre, available in the settings menu across Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

1. Open Settings on any Meta platform.
2. Select Accounts Centre.
3. Tap Your information and permissions → Export your information → Create export.
4. Choose which profile you want to download data from.
5. Select where the export will go — your device or an external/cloud storage service.
6. Pick the content categories, date range, and photo/video quality (high, medium or low).
7. Enter an email address to receive a notification when the export is ready.
8. Choose your preferred format:
   • HTML (easier for viewing offline)
   • JSON (useful for transferring to other platforms)
9. Click Start export.

Meta will prepare a ZIP file and email you once it’s ready to download.

What If You Don’t Have Enough Storage?

If your device is full, you can:

• Export directly to a cloud service instead of downloading locally.
• Reduce file size by exporting fewer categories or choosing lower-quality media.

What Your Download Can Include

Meta allows you to export a wide range of your personal data, such as:

• Your activity: Posts, comments, groups and interactions.
• Connections: Friends, followers and how you’re connected.
• Profile details: Information you entered when creating your account.
• Security info: Login history and technical account data.
• Ad activity: Advertisers you’ve interacted with and ads you’ve clicked.
• Preferences: Settings and actions used to customise your experience.
• Apps and websites: Activity from apps or websites linked to your account.
• Search and logged data: Searches, views and other tracked activity.

What the Download Looks Like

Your exported information will arrive as a ZIP file via email.

• On a Mac, double-click the file to open it.
• On Windows, right-click → Extract All to choose where the files go.

Inside will be your data in your selected format (HTML or JSON), ready for viewing, storing or transferring.

If You’re Having Trouble Downloading

If you can’t export your data, it may be because:

• Your account is deactivated, or
• You have scheduled your account for deletion.

To download your content, you’ll need to reactivate the profile or cancel the scheduled deletion first.

If you want, I can also rewrite this into a shorter news-style version, a social media caption, or a script for a video explainer.