The Albanese government must leave no stone unturned to protect Australian children online following a landmark settlement in the United States requiring Meta to implement major new safeguards for young users of Facebook and Instagram, Shadow Minister for Communications and Digital Safety, Sarah Henderson, said today.
The settlement includes stronger age assurance measures, parental controls, daily usage limits, and restrictions on overnight use for children and teenagers aged under 18.
Senator Henderson said the developments in the United States exposed the limitations of the Albanese Government’s current approach.
“Labor’s poorly designed, rushed and badly implemented under-16s social media ban is clearly not working as intended. The government’s regulator, the eSafety Commissioner, concedes 70 per cent of teens under 16 are accessing social media platforms despite the ban.”
Senator Henderson said allegations aired during the US proceedings painted a disturbing picture of platform design built around a strategy to ‘hook, hold, harvest and hide’ – hook young people, hold their attention for as long as possible, harvest their personal data and hide the truth about the harms being caused.
“Parents are rightly asking what more can be done to protect children from addictive algorithms, endless scrolling and harmful platform design features.”
Senator Henderson said the Albanese government was doing too little, too late, and much stronger safeguards are required across the entire digital ecosystem including games, messenger applications, and live streaming services to improve online safety. These include giving parents access to safety tools in mobile device operating systems and the option to switch off recommendation algorithms.
“Nothing should be off the table, including stronger parental controls, daily time limits, overnight restrictions and the option to permanently opt out of algorithm-driven recommendations.”
“At the recent online safety Senate inquiry*, an Australian representative for Meta repeatedly refused to concede its social media platforms were causing children harm.”
The US settlement is further evidence Labor and Communications Minister Anika Wells are failing to hold the multinational tech giants to account and young Australians are paying a very heavy price,” Senator Henderson said.