eSafety Commissioner meeting US tech giants to lay down law on Australia social media ban
As world leaders are heaping praise on Australia’s new social media ban, our eSafety Commissioner will be facing off with US tech giants to protect our kids.
EXCLUSIVE: The national online safety boss will meet with social media companies in the US later this month to ensure there is no doubt about what Australia expects of them when the new age restriction legislation comes into force in December.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant exclusively revealed that guidance around the ban on under 16s using social media will be released next week and then she will follow that up with a trip to the US where she will have a head-to-head with the tech behemoths.
Meanwhile, the legislation which was sparked by News Corp’s Let Them Be Kids campaign, is making an impact internationally.
The EU chief Ursula von der Leyen announced this week she was looking at how Europe can follow Australia’s lead, while an inquiry in France has concluded that children under 15 be banned from social media, as well as an overnight “digital curfew” for under 18s.
Banning social media for under 16s in the EU would impact an estimated 65 million children across 27 countries.
As a mother and grandmother, Ms von der Leyen, said for too long parents had felt powerless to protect their children from the harms of social media and praised Australia’s “bold” move.
She said kids are taught that they cannot smoke, drink and watch adult content until a certain age and now it is time to apply the same rules to social media.
“I strongly believe that parents, not algorithms, should be raising our children,” Ms van der Leyen said.
“Because when it comes to our kids’ safety online, Europe believes in parents, not profits.
“I will commission a panel of experts to advise me by the end of this year on the best approach for Europe.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – who has thanked News Corp’s Let Them be Kids campaign and the parents who backed it – is travelling to the UN General Assembly in New York next week, where he is expected to encourage other world leaders to follow Australia’s lead.
Leading experts in this space Jonathan Haidt and Ravi Iyer also wrote a joint essay on the groundbreaking legislation predicting it would be adopted around the globe.
They debunked mischaracterisations of the policy from critics including the social media giants themselves.
Psychologist and author of The Anxious Generation Dr Haidt and Psychology of Technology Institute manager and psychologist Dr Iyer praised Australia’s leadership to increase the social media age limit from 13 to 16.
“Australia is giving a gift to its parents and teens, and the benefits will soon spread globally,” they wrote.
Wayne Holdsworth, who lost his son Mac, 17, to suicide after he fell victim to a sextortion scam on Instagram, is a proud backer of New Corp’s campaign that made this all happen and can’t quite believe how big it has got.
“The stories of our children in Australia are now going to save lives not just here, but all over the world,” Mr Holdsworth said.
“And that’s the biggest legacy that my boy could ever have left.”
He said he felt proud to work alongside other parents and News Corp to firstly advocate and lobby the government to make change.
“To see it snowball around the world is amazing,” Mr Holdsworth said.
He said some people turn to drugs and alcohol to deaden the pain after losing a loved one to suicide, but he had used Mac’s death as a “catalyst to do more and to take on the tech giants”.
Fiona Carusi, whose child had an eating disorder because of social media, and who is another Let Them Be Kids advocate, said her heart was “filled with hope and pride”.
“When we reach hearts beyond our borders and join hands with the global community, we don’t just protect our own, we begin to change the world for every child,” Ms Carusi said.
However, it will be up to Ms Inman Grant and her team to ensure the new legislation is a success and that it is adhered to by the social media companies.
Ms Inman Grant said at her face-to-face meetings with the social media platforms in the next few weeks she will tell them that from December 10 she wants to see all the under-16s accounts deactivated.
“It’s eminently possible, it’s eminently doable,” she said.
“I just want to make sure that there are no questions about what does good look like?”
After she meets with the tech giants this month she will meet with “a coalition of the willing” – her 27 European counterparts – in November to work out how best they can work together to take on the powerful social media companies, as Australia continues to pave the way on this issue.
“I’ll be signing a couple of memorandum of understandings (MOU) with other online safety regulators so we can share more information, do some joint enforcement actions and the like because we are coming up against the most powerful, the richest corporations in the world that are larger than some nation states,” Ms Inman Grant said.
“We need to be working with a coalition of the willing that are aligned with us in sort of making sure that our industry is safer.”
She said she was aware that the world will be watching Australia on this issue.
“I’m absolutely proud. I think we’re showing what’s in the realm of the possible. We’re doing world-first things all the time,” Ms Inman Grant said.
“I think it’s fair to say, and I hear this a lot from other governments, that in the online safety regulation space, Australia is the North Star.
“I correct them and say, well, actually we’re the Southern Cross,” she joked.
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Originally published as eSafety Commissioner meeting US tech giants to lay down law on Australia social media ban
