Tracey Roberts (Pearce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How is the Albanese Labor government helping keep young people safe online?

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

I thank the member for Pearce for her question. This is an issue that was raised when I was in the member's electorate just a couple of months ago.

Today our government has introduced legislation to create a new minimum age of 16 for access to social media. Social media has a social responsibility. As a government, we have a responsibility to keep our young Australians safe. We know that social media is causing social harm. It can be a force for good, to communicate and to engage. But what we have seen so often is young people have, sometimes with catastrophic consequences, been damaged as a result of some of the ways social media can impact them. It's a point that was made to me with absolute clarity by Mat Howard and Kelly O'Brien, the parents of Charlotte; and Robb Evans, the father of Liv Evans. No parent should lose their child, and in these tragic circumstances it has been just extraordinary what they have gone through. But they've channelled that grief and trauma into something positive—into trying to ensure that other parents don't have to go through the same thing. This is a difficult task. This is something that no government around the world has been able to achieve yet. They're all grappling with it, though; this is a global problem.

We want young Australians to, essentially, have a childhood. We want parents to have peace of mind. I want young Australians to grow up playing outside with their friends. I want them to communicate people to people, young person to young person, not just through their devices—off their phones and onto footy fields, netball courts and tennis courts and into swimming pools, engaging with each other. We know the really positive impact that banning phones in schools has had. We know it has changed the social interaction that occurs at lunchtime, during play lunch, during that activity, and after school. We know that that has been positive and it has been well received not just by parents and teachers but by young people themselves.

The onus in this legislation will be on the social media companies, not parents or young people. There will be no penalties for users. We all know that technology moves fast, and some will try to find ways around these new laws. But that's not a reason to ignore the responsibility we have or to just stand around and wring our hands and say, 'It's too difficult.' The legislation should be passed by this parliament, and I hope that it can be passed this year. We want this action to happen as soon as possible.