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

Earlier today the Leader of the Opposition and I met with representatives of the 36 Months campaign, which is doing extraordinary work in advocating for the protection of children from social media and have been advocating for a long time for the age of 16 to be imposed as a limit. We met with Matthew and Kelly O'Brien, the parents of Charlotte, who was tragically lost to suicide, and also with Robb Evans, the father of Liv, who was also tragically lost to suicide. The strength of these parents in the most unimaginable of circumstances is something that is extraordinary, and their advocacy is the definition of 'powerful'. I also want to acknowledge Rob Galluzzo and Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli, who have set the agenda through their 36 Months campaign in an incredibly impressive fashion and used their ability to reach the community in an extremely impressive way.

In June the coalition committed to legislating for a minimum age of 16 for social media. We welcome the government taking on that position today. We don't want there to be exemptions in this legislation for companies like Instagram or TikTok or Snapchat—that must not happen—and we want to work to get this legislation not only introduced this year but passed this year to protect Australian families.