SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday social media firms would be required to destroy personal data used to verify ages of users, as part of what the government says is a world-leading ban on under-16s using the services.

The Australian government won’t proceed with legislation that would have forced social media sites to crack down on misinformation on their platforms after failing to win enough cross-party support.Most Read from BloombergNYC's Underground Steam System May Be Key to a Greener FutureNYC Gets Historic Push for 80,

TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram are among the platforms that would face significant fines for systemic failures to prevent young children from holding accounts.

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Thursday that his government has rollout a new social media ban on children under 16, leaving the responsibility of policing the law to tech companies.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, the owner of social media platform X, criticized proposed legislation in Australia that aims to ban social media for children under 16.

An advocate for major social media platforms has told Australia's Parliament that a plan to ban children younger than 16 from the sites should be delayed rather than being rushed to approval this week

The law could lead to fines up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) on social media platforms if they don't prevent children from having accounts