Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How will the Albanese Labor government's proposal for a national minimum age for social media protect children, help parents and teachers and change our country for the better?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Macquarie for her question. Indeed, this is about giving children a childhood and giving parents peace of mind. It is an important reform. As time has come, what we have done here is to engage with the eSafety Commissioner, engage with our department to make sure that we can make a difference for the legislation we want to introduce into parliament this year so that it can become the law of the land.

Many parents and others can already, of course, make decisions about their families, to restrict their access to social media or, indeed, restrict their access to devices, but by making it a national law it will assist them. We know that peer group pressure is really important for young people at that age. We know that a decision of a national minimum age will support parents and will support teachers, because the banning of mobile phones in schools, when it has been implemented by state governments, has received extraordinary support.

The state governments are, of course, out there campaigning as well. We had a discussion about this at National Cabinet on Friday. I welcome the fact that Premier Malinauskas had the former Chief Justice of the High Court, Justice French, do a 276-page report. We discussed making sure that there is a national approach so that we don't end up with different approaches across different states, and that has been welcomed by Premier Malinauskas. Indeed, I table his media release of today: 'Premier welcomes national support for social media ban for children'. This is an issue that does cross state borders. Social media does have a social responsibility, and it needs a social licence in order to operate as well.

Some people have said that it will be difficult because people can change, with VPN numbers having escalated in places like the United States, where this has been tried, which is why we need to make sure that we absolutely get it right. That's why you do a trial—which is funded in the May budget—to make sure that you get it right. You do the research, you do the work, and then you can have the legislation and create the law to protect our children.