Premier Jacinta Allan will raise concerns about social media giants with Prime Minister

Premier Jacinta Allan has added her voice to a growing chorus of leaders calling on the Albanese government to take action against “harmful” social media titans.

Jacinta Allan has joined other premiers calling on the Albanese government to take action against social media giants profiting from cyber crime and failing to protect Australian children.

Ms Allan has pledged to take her concerns about the dangers of social media to the commonwealth as pressure ramps up on Mr Albanese to conduct a review into how the practices of social media companies’ are affecting young Australians.

The Victorian Premier, a mother of two, said social media giants like Meta – owned by billionaire Mark Zuckerberg – needed to take responsibility for the harmful impacts their apps can have on young minds.

“As a mum I know no parent can escape the influence social media has on children, and social media giants need to take responsibility for the harm they can cause,” she told the Herald Sun.

Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta. Picture: AFP

The Premier said she would raise the issue with Mr Albanese.

“These are matters for the Federal Government but I will be raising this with the Prime Minister to ensure we have a national approach,” she said.

Her comments come after Queensland Premier Steven Miles slammed the controllers of popular social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook for having “no regard, no responsibility”.

“If you look at what they do, effectively profiting from crime in Queensland, they allow perpetrators to post their crimes and then Facebook profits from it,” he said.

“They are impacting on our young people, they’re impacting on our communities and they’re doing it with impunity.”

Mr Miles noted that Australian states have little power to regulate social media apps.

He urged the Australian Government to “look at what else they can do to make the social media companies operate with some kind of responsibility”.

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns has also criticised social media giants, accusing them of viewing children as “guinea pigs”.

NSW Premier Chris Minns accused social media giants of viewing children as ‘guinea pigs’. Picture: Gaye Gerard

“We cannot expect a thirteen-year-old kid to battle the forces of big technology, Facebook, TikTok or Instagram, when we know that these platforms are designed to keep people on their device for as long as possible,” he said.

“We have never before seen this sort of technology distributed on such a large scale.”

Mr Minns said he would “be open” to working with the Federal Government to conduct a review into how the practices of social media companies’ impact young kids.

It comes after Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen warned that Australian children shouldn’t be using smartphones before they are 14 years-old due to the serious mental and physical health risks posed by unregulated access to Meta platforms like Instagram and Facebook.

Premier Jacinta Allan will raise concerns with the Prime Minister about social media giants putting kids at risk. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

The former Meta product manager – who leaked thousands of documents exposing the operations of the tech giant in 2021 – told the Herald Sun on Tuesday she was “really concerned” about kids influenced by dangerous algorithms.

Florida Governor Ron De Santis signed new laws banning teenagers under 14 years old from holding social media accounts this week – irrespective of parental consent.

The new rules force social media platforms to shut down accounts operated by children and cancel accounts at the request of parents.

In January, Meta introduced new protections to give teens “more age-appropriate experiences” on its platforms, including automatically putting teens into the “most restrictive content control settings” on Instagram and Facebook.