Anthony Albanese backs under-16 social media ban

Anthony Albanese says a total ban on under-16s from accessing social media is a ‘good way to go’ in curbing the serious online harms impacting children.

CyberCX chief strategy officer and former eSafety commissioner Alastair MacGibbon told The Australian tech giants made significant profit from allowing as large a cohort on to their platforms as possible. Picture: NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

Anthony Albanese says a total ban on under-16s from accessing social media is a “good way to go” in curbing the serious online harms impacting children, declaring that Peter Dutton was just playing “catch up” by promising to legislate such a ban within the first 100 days of the Coalition taking office.

The Opposition Leader on Thursday doubled down on his pledge to use age verification to stop children accessing social media before the age of 16, saying it was “inconceivable” for tech giants to allow 13 year olds on to their platforms.

CyberCX chief strategy officer and former eSafety commissioner Alastair MacGibbon told The Australian tech giants made significant profit from allowing as large a cohort on to their platforms as possible and that mandates stopping them from “monetising our kids” were needed.

“I applaud politicians for ­actually starting to talk about taking action on something that I think deep down most people in the public have wanted a stance on for a while,” he said.

However, Mr MacGibbon said the technology that would be needed to implement such a ban “still has a long way to go”.

Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman said the Coalition would announce the measures it would use to implement the ban in due course, but pointed to the fact social media platforms were already using age verification technology in some circumstances.

“They do it for Facebook dating in the US, they do it for Instagram if you change your age from say 15 and say you’re 18 – because in that case it’s so obvious the person is probably a child, they have to look into it – but they’ve been doing that for some time. So the idea that the technology doesn’t exist, or it’s not possible, is wrong,” he said.

“We’ll release further details in due course, but plainly, the companies will be required to comply with the new law, and that will include penalties if they don’t.”

Labor invested more than $6m into an age assurance trial earlier this year, but the initiative is largely aimed at investigating technologies that can prevent people under 18 accessing adult content such as pornography.

It is not yet clear whether the trial will look to test the technology on social media access.

In response to Mr Dutton on Thursday handing “an offer of friendship to the government to make sure that we can join up together on this really important issue”, the Prime Minister indicated a ban would have bipartisan support.

“A ban, if it can be effective, is a good way to go,” he said.

But in a veiled swipe at Mr Dutton, Mr Albanese said the Opposition Leader was a latecomer to the issue. “It’s good that he’s caught up, and I welcome him catching up,” he said.

When asked if raising the age to 14, as South Australia is currently investigating, or 16, Mr Albanese said 16 was reasonable.

The increase in momentum for social media bans comes as eSafety research found a small number of “harmful voices”, including that of Andrew Tate – known for his misogynistic views – dominated online conver­sations about masculinity.