Labor set to introduce bolstered social media laws into parliament

Labor will introduce legislation on Monday to strengthen the powers of the online safety watchdog and impose double fines on social media companies that breach Australia’s landmark social media ban.

Anthony Albanese said it was “clear that big tech is not doing enough to comply with the law.”

“And there are still too many kids on social media,” the Prime Minister said.

Mr Albanese warned that the evolving nature of technology meant future governments would need to be “careful and prepared to make changes and continue to monitor this issue”.

Minister of Communications Anika Wells announced that she met a young person who opened a social media account and “she was not even asked her age.”

“This is definitely not good enough,” Ms. Wells said.

“This is big tech using classic big tech tactics, doing the bare minimum and thinking it is above domestic law.

“My message to big tech is: we are not stopping.”

Last week the government announced that platforms that breach Australia’s ground-breaking social media ban would face fines of $49.5 million to $99 million and that the online safety watchdog would have stronger powers.

Ms Wells said the changes would give the eSafety Commissioner the power to request documentation from technology platforms to prove they had made reasonable efforts to prevent people under 16 from creating or accessing accounts.

“Currently valid legislation means that the eSafety Commissioner requires these technology companies to provide information on a monthly basis,” he said. “As you can imagine right now, we believe they are taking the mickey, there is a lot of nonsense about it and essentially he (the commissioner) has to take them at their word.

“Requesting documents, like in a police investigation, means they need transcripts, emails, evidence between third-party providers and big tech companies. This creates a stronger body of evidence for a case.”

Some of the world’s most popular social media platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, have been banned to under-16s in Australia since December 10.

The laws were introduced as a result of sustained lobbying by News Corp Australia and the Let Them Be Kids campaign.

This follows comments by eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant earlier this month that she did not have “strong powers” to enforce the ban.

Ms Inman-Grant told Nine Newspapers the current social media ban legislation was “very weak scaffolding”.

“What I would say is that a regulator is only as good as the tools and resources available to him,” he said.

Newcastle University research has found that nearly 85 per cent of young people are still using social media three months after the ban.

More than half of them were using their own accounts.

The survey included 408 young people between the ages of 12 and 17.