Question Time Response - Social media age limit legislation

Question - Federal Member for Spence, Matt Burnell MP: 

How will the Labor Government’s legislation for social media age limits support families and promote healthy outcomes for young Australians?

Answer - Minister for Communications, Michelle Rowland: 

Thank you and I thank the Member for his question. Today, the Albanese Government introduced world-leading legislation that sets a minimum age of 16 years for social media.

We understand the deep concern of many parents about the harmful impact of social media including screen addiction on their children. Parents have told us they want help managing their children's use of social media and the Albanese Government is taking action. 

The Online Safety Amendment Social Media Minimum Age Bill 2024 will deliver greater protections for young Australians during critical stages of their development. This bill seeks to set a new normative value in society -  that accessing social media is not the defining feature of growing up in Australia. 

It creates a new definition of age-restricted social media platforms to capture those services where a significant purpose of the service is to enable social interaction between two or more users. At a minimum, this will capture TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, Instagram and X, amongst others. 

The law places the onus on social media platforms, not parents of young people, to take reasonable steps to ensure these protections are in place. The bill, and associated rules I intend to make, will ensure continued access to messaging and online gaming and continued access to services that are health and education related such as headspace, Kids Helpline and YouTube Kids.

It could see organisations face up to $50,000 of fines for systemic breaches. It also provides provisions over and above what is already in existing privacy laws. Under the proposed legislation, platforms will be required to destroy data collected for age assurance processes once the process is complete. Not destroying data would be a breach of the Privacy Act with penalties also of up to $50 million. 

The Government will also provide funding for the eSafety Commissioner to provide a strong oversight. 

I want to be open with Parliament that this bill is complex and the approach we are taking is a novel. Age assurance technology is not going to be 100 per cent childproof but we should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. 

The legislation brought forward by the Albanese Government is, in the most fundamental sense, about helping families when they are sitting around the kitchen table to have that hard conversation about accessing social media. Our laws will enable parents to say no, this normative value is immense because it will reduce the peer pressure the children feel to be on social media just because their friends are, and I thank the many parents, experts and young Australians who have participated in our consultations. 

The Government looks forward to the Parliament 's examination of the bill and we will continue to engage constructively to see it progressed.