New Delhi, Dec. 5 -- A week before Australia's social media ban for under-16s kicks in, Meta has started pushing underage Australians off its Instagram, Facebook and Threads platforms.

The ban, which comes into effect on 10 December, is aimed at shielding children from harmful content. Social media being what it is, the rest of the world is watching what many consider a doomed experiment.

Age-faking has been a common practice for the underage to gain access to platforms and many under-16s are aware of VPN and other hacks to get around digital walls. Social media is quite addictive; in such cases, the force of demand could overwhelm official efforts to contain it.

Perhaps a better way is to stop the underage from exposure in the first p...