Albanese plans to go harder on teen social media ban
Anthony Albanese has signaled a new tightening of the country’s world-first social media restrictions, saying the federal government will go further to block harmful online content, amid growing concerns about the impact on young Australians exposed to pornography, “nudification” practices and violent material.
The Prime Minister said the government plans to further strengthen the social media ban on under-16s and introduce broader online safety laws; Six months after landmark restrictions came into force, evidence has emerged that many children are still accessing major platforms.
Speaking in parliament on Thursday, Albanese said Australia could not allow tech companies to operate without greater accountability as concerns grow about the impact of online content on children and young men.
Albanese drew attention to the emergence of artificial intelligence-supported “nudification” applications that can create sexually explicit images and said the government was actively considering tougher measures.
“We are seeing increasing presentations of young women suffocating, suffocating, in our hospitals,” he told the House of Representatives. “We are seeing anal laceration increasing at an extraordinary, terrifying rate because what many young men see online is the normalization of abnormal behavior.”
“As a parliament, we need to be conscious about this issue. We need to be brave about this issue.”
He said the law now allows fines of $49.5 million for those who break the youth social media ban, but said it was clear “we need to do more”. He touched on an already-announced digital duty of care that would impose broader obligations on tech companies to detect and mitigate harm across their services.
A government source confirmed a “major” announcement was expected within days.
Albanese claimed Australia led the world with a social media ban on under-16s, with 16 other countries now following similar approaches. The United Kingdom this month announced plans to restrict social media access for children under 16 by next year.
But the effectiveness of the flagship policy has been called into question as underage teens find their way back to the platforms.
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant recently described the laws as a “very brute force approach” and said the legislation was developed “very quickly” with only a “very thin scaffolding”.
He told the imprint that he “does not have powerful powers” and that “the editor is only as good as the tools and resources he is given.”
The ban, which came into effect in December, requires Meta to block Facebook and Instagram, and platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube to block Australians under 16 from having accounts.
Inman Grant said the number of under-16 accounts had fallen by 37 per cent in three months, but the regulator’s own compliance report found around 70 per cent of children with accounts before the ban were still using the major platforms. Inman Grant acknowledged that most people are never asked to verify their age.
Research from Newcastle University also found that four in five Australian teenagers reported still accessing social media in the months after the ban came into force, claiming there was “insufficient evidence of any early impact”.
The eSafety Commissioner is investigating several major tech companies for potential violations and has retained outside lawyers to discuss possible sanctions, although no penalties have yet been imposed.
It announced in March that it was focusing its compliance and enforcement efforts on investigations across five platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube — and aimed to decide on any enforcement action by mid-year.
Albanese said the government had considered Inman Grant’s latest comments and announced that the social media ban should be further strengthened.
“We need to be brave about this,” he said. “There’s more to be done.”
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Rob Harris is a national correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Canberra. He is a former European correspondent.Connect via email.
