Tech giants are failing to properly enforce Australia’s social media age ban, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says, prompting moves to double the penalties they can face to $99 million and equip the eSafety Commissioner with stronger investigative powers.
The changes follow a candid interview in this masthead earlier this month in which commissioner Julie Inman Grant said she had not been “really keen” on the world-first social media ban, and did not have “potent powers” to police the tech platforms she was charged with reining in.
Australia’s landmark social media ban for under 16s came into effect last December, amid fierce pushback from captured tech platforms Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube. The government has spruiked the policy as a significant win, claiming 5 million accounts have been removed, and the change has spurred similar policies across the globe.
However, claims that young people are easily circumventing the ban and doubts over the veracity of account removals data have marred the rollout.
“Six months into our world-leading social media law, I am not satisfied that tech companies are doing everything they can to keep under 16s off their platforms. Based on the regular updates I receive from the eSafety Commissioner, it is clear to me that social media platforms are adopting tricks straight out of the big tech playbook and doing the bare minimum to get by,” Albanese said in a statement.
“In response, I am making sure the regulator has stronger tools to get the job done and doubling the fines for non-compliance. Social media platforms are some of the richest and most powerful companies in the world, and we’re serious about holding them to account.”
A date has yet to be set for the introduction of the new legislation, which will give Inman Grant the power to compel companies to provide “evidence of what they have done to stop under 16s from getting an account”, including through demands for information and documents from the platforms.
The powers will be extended to third parties, such as age-assurance firms and app-store providers. Penalties for not complying with information-gathering notices will be doubled.
Inman Grant recently described establishing the social media ban as a “very blunt force approach” and said the legislation had been developed “very quickly” with only “very thin scaffolding”.
She told this masthead that she did not “have potent powers” and that a “regulator is only as good as the tools and the resources that they’re given”.
Penalties for systematic breaches of the ban will be increased from $49.5 million to $99 million. The previous penalty was criticised for its small-stick approach compared with the annual revenue of firms captured under the ban, which range from about $US6 billion ($8.7 billion) to upwards of $US200 billion ($290 billion).
“These tough new penalties and powers show we will not back down. Instead, we are doubling down on our efforts to hold big tech to account,” Albanese said.
In parliament on Thursday, Albanese offered a lengthy rebuke of technology companies, saying that young women were presenting to hospitals with injuries because of extreme conduct and sexual violence that had been normalised by social media algorithms.
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Nick Newling is a federal politics reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.
