Australian parliamentary inquiry stops short of backing social media ban for under-16s | Technology

A parliamentary committee examining the impact of social media on Australian society has recommended users be given the power to alter, reset or turn off algorithms, as well as be provided with greater privacy protection, but has stopped short of recommending a ban on under-16s accessing social media.

The wide-ranging inquiry, which was predominantly focused on the impact of social media on young people came as both the Coalition opposition and the federal government adopted a policy to ban under-16s from social media pending legislation to be introduced into parliament before the end of the year.

In the 12 recommendations in the final report, the joint committee recommended the government consider options to make it easier for the government to enforce laws on the digital platforms, introduce a duty of care for platforms, require platforms to provide data access to researchers and public interest organisations, give users greater control over what they see on the platforms via algorithms, provide greater digital literacy education, and report back to parliament on the outcome of the trial of age assurance technology.

Despite the bipartisan position banning under-16s from social media, the inquiry did not make a recommendation to adopt this policy, noting that there had been “contrasting views on whether making it safer for children means preventing them from accessing social media until they reach a certain age”. It said there was widespread agreement that a ban alone was not sufficient to curb harms on social media.

The committee, however, recommended that any regulatory framework affecting young people be co-designed with young people. During hearings for the inquiry, the committee heard from young people who had felt frustrated at being left out of the process.

“I just don’t know where that age [16] has come from and what the evidence is to support that and whether that’s effective … it seems like it’s just a number someone’s plucked out of the air, and it sounds good,” Sina Aghamofid, an advocate at Reach Out told the inquiry last month.

“Politically, it’s a great age. But I haven’t really heard the reasons that we’ve come up with this age and what the evidence is for this kind of age.”

Committee chair, Labor MP Sharon Claydon, told parliament experts had said there was no magic bullet, but said the government should take “immediate action to better protect Australian users”.

“We heard that while legislating an age limit might not be the perfect solution, and should certainly not be the only solution, but it would provide important breathing space for the implementation of long-term, sustainable digital reforms.”

Deputy chair of the committee, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, said a blunt age ban on social media is not the solution.

“The evidence is in and it’s clear that banning young people from YouTube is not the solution. You don’t make platforms safer by just locking young people out. This report is a call to action for our parliament to stop the toxic tech giants damaging our democracy and targeting our kids,” she said.

In an additional report, the Greens called for the government to immediately release the review of the Online Safety Act, prohibit data mining of young people’s information, provide more education, and consider a digital services tax on the platforms.

In an extensive additional report from the Coalition members of the committee, the members have recommended stronger action against social media, including forcing companies to scan encrypted messaging for child abuse material, forcing search engines to report what action they are taking against similar material, and also general pornographic material appearing in search results. They also called for a crackdown on “link in bio” links put in social media profiles to link to adult websites, or scam ads.

On Friday, the government named the UK-based Age Check Certification Scheme to run the expected six-month trial of age assurance technology, including testing ID credentials, age estimation, age inference, and parental certifications or controls. Australians will be invited to test the different technologies during the trial.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has said there will be no grandfathering for existing users, and department officials told Senate estimates last month that every user will have to go through the age assurance process – not just those aged under 16.

The trial will not be completed before parliament considers the legislation mandating a ban on under-16s, and providers will have 12 months to implement age assurance, pushing the launch of ban past the next federal election.