Block children or be slapped with $50m fines, social media giants told

Instagram, Facebook and X will face fines of up to $50m for breaching Labor’s proposed social media ban for under-16s, with the government telling the platforms to protect young Australians.

Instagram, Facebook and X will face fines of up to $50m for breaching Labor’s proposed social media ban for under-16s, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said.

Instagram, Facebook and X will face fines of up to $50m for breaching Labor’s proposed social media ban for under-16s, with the government declaring the platforms must fulfil their responsibility of protecting the safety and health of young Australians.

In legislation to be tabled to parliament on Thursday, social media platforms will face substantial penalties should they fail to “take reasonable steps to prevent young people under the age of 16 from having an account”.

“This reform is about protecting young people and letting parents know we’ve got their backs,” Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said.

“The legislation places the onus on social media platforms, not parents or children, to ensure protections are in place.”

The bill will include “robust privacy provisions”, given many forms of age verification rely on personal or biometric data.

The minister will be empowered “to exclude specific classes of services”, such as messaging services, online games and services that primarily function to support children’s health and education.

While the Coalition is supportive of social media bans for young people, The Australian understands there is a push within the opposition for Snapchat to be included within the legislation and for YouTube to be carved out.

Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman said the bill needed to be passed before parliament rises next week because “social media companies have abrogated their responsibility to Australian kids”.

“They couldn’t care less about the mental health of Australian kids. We’re seeing shocking data in terms of mental health, self-harm and other things and we should come together and get this done,” he told Sky News.

The social media bill is one of the key pieces of legislation Labor hopes to pass with the help of the Coalition, which also indicated it would support the milestone aged care bill following a number of changes. These include for the loosening of 24/7 nursing requirements for aged care homes, particularly in regional areas, with the opposition demanding “more flexibility” in the registered nurse workforce requirements in exchange for their support.

And, while the government already agreed to strike criminal penalties against aged care providers from the bill, the Coalition is also seeking greater oversight around the aged care commissioner’s ability to launch civil penalties, in amendments presented to parliament on Wednesday.

While the government is making progress on its deals with the Coalition, there is still no progress on any compromise over help-to-buy or build-to-rent legislation with the Greens, despite Max Chandler-Mather saying the Greens’ proposal to fix the legislation was designed to be “popular, achievable and easy to accept”.

“It requires no new legislation and sits broadly within government policy,” he said.

The Greens are asking for 25,000 extra social houses to be built and for the definition of “affordability” to be tightened.