Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Dunkley for her question. The safety and security of Australians is a priority for this government, as it should be, and that includes the safety and security of young people and children online. We know that social media can be used for good; there is no question about that. As the Minister for Youth, I have heard from young people through our youth consultations and through our youth engagement program. In our survey of 4,600 young people, mental health featured second as their greatest concern. Young people tell me that, while they value social media for the connectivity it affords them, they are also highly attuned to the negative impacts it has on their mental health, on their social and physical wellbeing.

Social media is associated with poor mental health, with eating disorders, with depression, with anxiety, with self-harm, with cyberbullying, with poor sleep quality among a plethora of other things. That social media is harmful to children and young people is not contentious; I think we can all agree on that. Young people know it, parents know it, teachers know it, youth workers know it, researchers know it and we know it. That is why we are doing something about it. This is a topic that is discussed at barbecues, it is discussed in the schoolyard and it is discussed among young people themselves.

The Albanese Labor government is going to introduce a minimum age for access to social media and gaming platforms, and we know we need to get this right. We need to bring children, we need to bring young people and parents along with us on this journey. But there is work already underway. In May, we announced funding for an age-assurance trial exploring age verification technologies to protect children from being exposed to harmful online content. I have been working with the Minister for Communications, Minister Rowland, to that ensure that young people are engaged in the development of that trial. We are also making sure that young people and families have the tools to use social media safely through initiatives like the digital literacy programs in schools through a partnership with the Alannah and Madeline Foundation. We have quadrupled funding to the eSafety Commisioner, making sure that commission has what it needs to keep Australians safe online.

Children deserve a childhood. They deserve a childhood free from the harms that unfortunately social media brings with it. They deserve a childhood where they can play freely, where they can grow up with a strong identity and a strong sense of belonging, a childhood free from bullying, free from anxiety and free from depression. We want to ensure that children in Australia get that childhood.

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