Social media companies could be slugged with fines of more than $100 million if they fail to do more to keep under-16s off their sites under an Albanese government bill set to go before the Senate on Tuesday.
The fines are part of a push to give more power to eSafety Commission chief Julie Inman Grant to target sites such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok for not lifting efforts to abide by Australia’s ban on young people accessing social media.
It forms a key part of a broader assault on social media platforms with draft laws that would force companies to take action that would prevent the platforming and sharing of harmful content, including illegal pornography, on their sites.
At the start of July, the government introduced to parliament an urgent bill it said would boost the eSafety Commission’s information gathering powers. That bill was sent to a Senate committee that, despite misgivings by non-government members, ticked off its approval.
That bill, which includes fines of $109.2 million for breaching new laws to prevent under-16s from accessing social media sites, will go to the Senate on Tuesday.
The government has come under fire over the large number of young people still on social media sites, despite its mandating of age verification.
But Communications Minister Anika Wells said more than five million under-16s accounts had been removed. She urged the upper house to back the bill as quickly as possible.
“Australian kids and parents needed these laws eight weeks ago, but the Coalition and Greens teamed up to send our four-page bill to an eight-week inquiry,” she said.
“The Coalition and the Greens ignored the pleas of parents who want social media companies held to account for harming Australian kids.
“We have to put politics to the side and pass this bill this week, so the eSafety Commissioner can hold social media companies accountable.”
The large fines at the heart of the under-16 ban will form part of the so-called “digital duty of care” reforms that the government is expected to release for public comment later this week.
The proposed legislation has the potential to split the Coalition between those who want to protect free speech and those who believe some social media outlets are deliberately causing harm among young people.
Liberal leader Angus Taylor on Sunday said while he had not seen the draft laws, he was worried about an “attempt by government to censor social media”.
He was more focused on the laws going to the Senate this week, noting the continued use by under-16s of social media.
“It’s not working. So then going off and starting off on some other thing, which risks being censorship of the internet, enormous ministerial discretion around censorship on the internet … If that’s what’s being proposed, we’re sceptical,” he told News24.
Opposition communications spokeswoman Sarah Henderson expressed deep reservations about the proposal and how it would give more powers to the government to regulate Australians’ freedom of expression.
“While we will consider the government’s exposure draft, the proposal for new ministerial powers to make regulations governing categories of online harms without parliamentary oversight is a serious threat to free speech,” she said.
“While tougher action is required to combat serious online harms and empower Australians to take greater control over what they see online, the digital duty of care, as currently proposed, appears to be a dangerous step in the wrong direction.
But opposition home affairs spokesman Jonathan Duniam said there might be merit in users not being force-fed an algorithm for their social media.
“Provided the detail stacks up and it doesn’t unnecessarily impede on people’s rights and freedoms, empowering individuals to make a choice about what they consume is absolutely where we should be at,” he told the ABC’s Insiders program.
“Empowering parents to do the same for those that are in their custody, their kids, should absolutely be something we consider.”
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Shane Wright is a senior economics correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.