00:02There's a couple of different ways to look at this, Gemma.
00:06Children are not meant to be on social media.
00:09People under the age of 16 were banned in December from a range of platforms, from Facebook
00:14to Twitch to TikTok.
00:17Are young people still on social media?
00:19Most likely.
00:20In fact, almost definitely, yes.
00:22But that seems to be the lesser problem here.
00:25These laws were never meant to be completely foolproof, but they are shifting things in
00:29the right direction towards steering young people away from social media.
00:33The problem, however, really lies in the accountability of the social media platforms.
00:39Companies do face fines of up to $50 million if people under the age of 16 are still using
00:46their platforms.
00:47But the eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, says the restrictions only have very thin scaffolding.
00:54She says her powers aren't potent and that she hasn't issued any fines yet, despite their
00:59being some evidence that non-compliance is taking place.
01:03So, what has the Prime Minister said about this?
01:05Well, the Prime Minister has been asked about a few different options at his disposal, including
01:11whether or not he would consider laws that would allow Australians to opt in or out of
01:17online algorithms.
01:19He didn't say whether Labor would go down this path, but he did say algorithms were being considered
01:24as part of a digital duty of care.
01:27The Prime Minister says that these algorithms are pushing people to more and more extremes,
01:33to the outskirts of the mainstream.
01:35He says some people might start engaging in some content, maybe about faith or ethnicity.
01:41And then as the algorithm keeps pushing, they're then getting Nazi-level propaganda in their inboxes.
01:47He says that's something he wants to crack down on.
01:50The more immediate action, though, it sounds like the Prime Minister is planning on taking
01:54is increasing some of the powers of the eSafety Commissioner and cracking down on those big
02:00tech companies.
02:01Here's what he had to say to News Breakfast.
02:04We're just looking at, are the laws as strong as possible, given some of the feedback that's
02:10there?
02:10Does the eSafety Commissioner have every power at her disposal?
02:16And as I mentioned, the government says it's also consulting on a digital duty of care.
02:22This could make it legally binding for online platforms to prevent foreseeable harm.
02:28So that could be changes to the platform designs themselves.
02:32It could include algorithms.
02:34It could include bots, a whole variety of tools at their disposal there.
02:39But the government, of course, is leading the world in these changes.
02:42We were the first to introduce the social media bans.
02:45Many other countries, including the UK just recently, are following suit.
02:49So the government wants to iron out these issues and they want to make sure they get it right.
02:53worse.
02:53Let's do this.
