Albanese slams Senate delay on Australia's under-16 social media ban
Anthony Albanese has attacked the Senate inquiry delay over stronger child social media ban powers. He says the hold-up could let platforms delete records before the eSafety commissioner can act.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has criticised senators for delaying changes to the country’s world-first social media ban for children, saying the hold-up could allow tech companies to destroy material that may be used as evidence against them.
The government this week introduced amendments to strengthen the powers of eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s online safety watchdog, as she enforces a ban in place since December that stops children under 16 from holding accounts on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. But the opposition Liberal Party and the Australian Greens on Thursday sent the draft law to an eight-week Senate inquiry, where the centre-left Labor government does not have a majority.
The proposed changes would allow Inman Grant to demand documents from platforms about what they are doing to keep young children off their services. At present, she can only demand information. “It is outrageous the delay because what the eSafety Commissioner has said very clearly is that that will allow the platforms to go and just delete a whole lot of material,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “Whereas if it was passed yesterday, that would have been the date from which these demands could be made by the commissioner. So then fines can be issued,” he added.
The amendments would also let the commissioner seek information from third parties, including age assurance technology providers, to check claims by platforms about how children were still getting around the ban. The bill would also double the maximum fine for platforms that fail to take reasonable steps to exclude children, taking it to 99 million Australian dollars ($68 million).
Greens senator David Shoebridge, who has long opposed the social media ban, questioned why a fine that had never been used needed to be doubled. “Doubling penalties that they’ve never used doesn’t seem to me to be a meaningful measure,” Shoebridge told Sky News Australia. “Is that really going to be the thing that keeps kids safe online?” Opposition communications spokesperson Senator Sarah Henderson said the amendments should go further. “This is a social media ban which is failing; a half-baked law which is poorly designed, which was rushed, which is badly implemented and which is not working,” Henderson said. “We will interrogate this bill properly and, frankly, I think the amendments before the Parliament need to be tougher,” she added.
Parliament passed the original law with overwhelming support in 2024, giving the 10 targeted platforms more than a year to put the ban in place. Countries that have brought in, or are considering, similar restrictions have been closely watching Australia’s progress. The government initially said more than 5 million children had accounts removed, deactivated or restricted after the ban became law. But eSafety said in March that seven in 10 children who had accounts on restricted platforms on December 10, when the ban took effect, were still on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.
Inman Grant said in April she was considering court action against Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, alleging they were not taking reasonable steps to exclude children. She said she was satisfied with the progress made by the remaining restricted platforms: X, Kick, Reddit, Threads and Twitch. Communications Minister Anika Wells said this week that she had received monthly updates from eSafety since March and that “we are not seeing improvements”. The amendments now head to a Senate inquiry as the government seeks wider powers and higher penalties to enforce Australia’s under-16 social media ban.
With PTI Inputs
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has criticised senators for delaying changes to the country’s world-first social media ban for children, saying the hold-up could allow tech companies to destroy material that may be used as evidence against them.
The government this week introduced amendments to strengthen the powers of eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s online safety watchdog, as she enforces a ban in place since December that stops children under 16 from holding accounts on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. But the opposition Liberal Party and the Australian Greens on Thursday sent the draft law to an eight-week Senate inquiry, where the centre-left Labor government does not have a majority.
The proposed changes would allow Inman Grant to demand documents from platforms about what they are doing to keep young children off their services. At present, she can only demand information. “It is outrageous the delay because what the eSafety Commissioner has said very clearly is that that will allow the platforms to go and just delete a whole lot of material,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “Whereas if it was passed yesterday, that would have been the date from which these demands could be made by the commissioner. So then fines can be issued,” he added.
The amendments would also let the commissioner seek information from third parties, including age assurance technology providers, to check claims by platforms about how children were still getting around the ban. The bill would also double the maximum fine for platforms that fail to take reasonable steps to exclude children, taking it to 99 million Australian dollars ($68 million).
Greens senator David Shoebridge, who has long opposed the social media ban, questioned why a fine that had never been used needed to be doubled. “Doubling penalties that they’ve never used doesn’t seem to me to be a meaningful measure,” Shoebridge told Sky News Australia. “Is that really going to be the thing that keeps kids safe online?” Opposition communications spokesperson Senator Sarah Henderson said the amendments should go further. “This is a social media ban which is failing; a half-baked law which is poorly designed, which was rushed, which is badly implemented and which is not working,” Henderson said. “We will interrogate this bill properly and, frankly, I think the amendments before the Parliament need to be tougher,” she added.
Parliament passed the original law with overwhelming support in 2024, giving the 10 targeted platforms more than a year to put the ban in place. Countries that have brought in, or are considering, similar restrictions have been closely watching Australia’s progress. The government initially said more than 5 million children had accounts removed, deactivated or restricted after the ban became law. But eSafety said in March that seven in 10 children who had accounts on restricted platforms on December 10, when the ban took effect, were still on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.
Inman Grant said in April she was considering court action against Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, alleging they were not taking reasonable steps to exclude children. She said she was satisfied with the progress made by the remaining restricted platforms: X, Kick, Reddit, Threads and Twitch. Communications Minister Anika Wells said this week that she had received monthly updates from eSafety since March and that “we are not seeing improvements”. The amendments now head to a Senate inquiry as the government seeks wider powers and higher penalties to enforce Australia’s under-16 social media ban.
With PTI Inputs
