David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

What we need in relation to social media is action, and unfortunately what we have seen from this government on the totemic issue of age verification for social media is inaction—so much so that in the motion establishing this inquiry into social media there was no reference to either age verification or age assurance. That is appalling, because the single most important issue facing Australian families when it comes to social media is what is happening to children in that environment.

This is an issue that is something of a defining issue for this era, because we're seeing incredibly disturbing things in the mental health outcomes of Australian children, especially girls. There is no more important issue than this, and we have to act. That's why in November—so, six or seven months ago—the coalition brought to this chamber legislation to act on the eSafety Commissioner's recommendation of March of 2023—so, 14 months ago—to get moving on a trial of age assurance technology for social media. It's right here on page 3 of the legislation that the coalition introduced to this chamber, where it includes establishing a minimum age for using a social media service. That's what we said, and the government actually came into this chamber and voted against it. That was a shameful thing for this government to do, and the government presumably did that on the instructions of this minister. It was a shameful and disgraceful decision that flies in the face of all the evidence about the need for action.

This is a government that never met a roundtable it didn't like—so many inquiries, consultations and roundtables. What about actually doing something about this issue? This is an issue that worries every Australian family, and this government's persistent inaction, right up to and including the terms of reference it proposed for this committee, betrays that lack of action. It's not surprising, because we've got a letter here from the minister to the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, in July of last year. Julie Inman Grant, the eSafety Commissioner, a widely respected public official, spent two years looking into the issue of age verification, protecting children online from pornography, social media and other things online.

The commissioner said, very sensibly, 'Let's trial this technology before mandating it and getting on with it.' That's what the commissioner said in March 2023—quite some time ago. In July 2023 the minister wrote a letter to the Prime Minister—and I have the letter here—saying that the pilot program, which is what the eSafety Commissioner recommended, would be 'an unnecessary distraction'. It says that here on page 2 of the letter. In other words, don't do it—don't do what the eSafety Commissioner, our top expert in this field, wants to happen, even though she's been working on it for two years. I'm speechless, but that's what this government did.

Then, a couple of weeks ago—14 months after the original recommendation—the government said, 'Actually, we will conduct this trial; we've wasted 14 months but we will conduct it now.' The language about that trial is pretty vague. It specifically mentions pornography, but it doesn't mention any other specific platforms. And when the minister was directly asked, on ABC radio last week, 'Will the trial include an age for social media?'—that is, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat—and, 'Will there be age verification for social media as part of that trial?' she refused to answer that question directly. She has referred to age-restricted content, which is a completely different concept to age verification. This ongoing inaction is completely inexcusable. It makes no sense whatsoever. The coalition has been talking about this issue and calling for action for months and months. This government, has been in a position to act upon the recommendation of the eSafety Commissioner after the inquiry was commissioned by the previous government, but this minister said, 'No; we're not going to do it,' and that is patently wrong. We need a minister who can do more than simply read out talking points. We need actual leadership and action. Australian families are demanding it, and we are not seeing it.

If you think about the substance of this, we have a classification system for movies and TV shows. We never said, 'Let's get rid of the classification.' Nor should we, because nobody thinks a 10-year-old should be watching R-rated movies, presumably. Yet we know that on social media that and worse happens every single day. So why on earth would we embrace a system under which this happens when we have a clear recommendation from our top expert to do something different? That is the question.

We know that so much is happening around the world. Facebook has been using age verification for its Facebook dating product in the US for more than two years. They don't tend to publicise that because the social media companies don't want age verification to happen because it's probably not going to be good for their businesses, but Facebook has actually been doing this for more than two years for its dating product in the US. On 5 December, Ofcom, which is the regulator in the UK, published detailed guidance as to how age-assurance technology should be implemented for the purpose of the UK Online Safety Act. We've had Florida pass a law on this a few weeks ago along with numerous US states, and there's a lot of action in Europe as well, but there's ongoing inaction in this country.

This is a totemic issue. The data we're seeing about the mental health of Australian children is really disturbing. Some people—and some of those people work for social media companies—say: 'You know what? It's all a coincidence.' The fact that over the last decade we've seen extremely concerning rises in the mental health outcomes for Australian children, and the fact that that has coincided, effectively in a straight line, with the adoption of social media by Australian children is a complete coincidence. I don't buy that at all, and I don't think any sensible person does.

Between 2008-09 and 2021-22, we saw a 275 per cent increase in the rate of self-harm hospitalisations of Australian girls under 14. For girls and young women aged 15-19 over the same period, we saw a 71 per cent increase in those hospitalisations. These are hard things to talk about, but we must talk about them because they are very important. The US Surgeon General, who's the nation's top doctor, has had a bit to say on this. He said in March:

What's happening in social media is the equivalent of having children in cars that have no safety features and driving on roads with no speed limits. No traffic lights and no rules whatsoever. And we're telling them: "you know what, do your best—figure out how to manage it." It is insane if you think about it.

And he's right. It is insane if you think about it.

I spent the vast majority of my career before coming to parliament in technology. I was head of digital for Nine, and I was the chairman of Nine MSN. I think that technology generally has been very positive for our economy and for our society, but, if 99 per cent of technology has been positive, we need to have intellectual clarity and honesty and strength about the one per cent that is not. This issue is very much in this category. This is not business as usual. This is not about roundtables and consultative process. This is about getting stuff done to protect Australian children.

The world is moving on this issue. The evidence is very clear that action needs to be taken. Our top expert was ignored for 14 months, shamefully, by this minister. Now the minister needs to get on with it. The past doesn't matter. What matters is the future. Get moving on this age verification process to protect Australian children from social media, because there is no more important issue facing this minister and this government than this issue.

Question agreed to.

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