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Senator KOVACIC (New South Wales) (10:15): I rise today in support of the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024. I want to make one thing abundantly clear from the outset: the coalition has always been firmly opposed to the implementation of a mandatory digital ID. There is rightfully widespread concern in the community about the security of personal data. With data breaches and leaks from major corporations dominating the news, it's entirely understandable that Australians are worried about the safety of their private information. Beyond the issues of data security, there is a much bigger concern at the heart of this debate—the growing danger that social media poses for our children. When it comes to the tech giants, platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok, it's clear these megacorporations have shown time and time again that they have not prioritised our children's safety.
I echo the very real concerns of many who reached out to me on this matter, and I want to be clear that I don't support any system, including a digital ID, that compromises the privacy and security of Australians. Such things should always be voluntary. Thanks to the efforts of the coalition, the bill includes crucial safeguards that prevent social media companies from forcing anyone to hand over sensitive personal information or documentation. This bill is not about restricting individual freedoms or lecturing parents on how to raise their children. It's about giving parents the tools and support they need to protect their kids from the very real dangers that are online.
The core focus of this legislation is simple. It demands that social media companies take reasonable steps to identify and remove under-age users from their platforms. This is a responsibility these companies should have been fulfilling long ago, but, for too long, they have shirked these responsibilities in favour of profit. This is not a radical concept. It's a necessary one. Similar provisions are already in place in places like Florida, Utah and Louisiana, where social media companies are required to take reasonable steps to verify the ages of their users. These steps are overseen by regulators, ensuring that companies are held accountable for their actions. Under this legislation, failure to comply could result in fines of up to $50 million.
Let's be clear that these companies have the capability to act. They can deploy their vast resources when they choose to do so. Take TikTok, for example. In 2023, TikTok removed 76 million under-age accounts globally, including one million right here in Australia. They did that of their own accord, and it wasn't too difficult, too complex, too hard or anything like that. They just did it. They did this also without requiring digital IDs or any sensitive personal documentation. Instead, they used technology they already had. They used technology that they already used—the same technology that they can use to customise feeds and algorithms, which they do every single day. They use it to identify under-age users. If TikTok can do this, so can other tech giants, like Meta, which is valued at some $2 trillion.
Imagine if there were a financial incentive to identify under-age accounts. I expect we wouldn't have to wait too long to see some outcomes in that regard. Mark Zuckerberg and his billionaire peers have repeatedly demonstrated that they care more about money than they do about the safety and the mental health of our children. They have the ability to do this without compromising or changing any mechanisms of privacy that people do not already hand over voluntarily when they open their own accounts. This bill takes a big-stick approach. It's the only way to get their attention and force them to make the changes that are so desperately needed. We must hold them to account, and this legislation does just that.
Social media and the digital world are an ever-evolving tech behemoth, and it's long overdue for our laws to evolve with it. Ask any millennial what their online experiences were like 10 years ago and, compared to now, you'll see a massive shift. And it's not a good shift; it's not a positive one. Social media platforms for young people were once dominated by dedicated safe spaces for children—sites like Club Penguin—where families felt confident that their kids were protected, but today that landscape has changed dramatically. Studies show that just a single exposure to extremist, racist, misogynistic or violent content can trigger algorithms that push even more harmful content to the viewer. With just one view, it can become part of your standard feed. A child just needs to happen upon it once and it will keep coming. We aren't talking about websites on the dark web. We aren't talking about obscure blogs in the depths of the internet. We are talking about content that is littered across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. TikTok was deliberately designed to be addictive. Think about that for a moment. Do we really want 13-year-old children being exposed to this kind of platform and content, where its purpose is to be addictive to our children? This should be unfathomable, yet here we are.
The protection of children from the toxic elements of social media and the online space is one of the most urgent issues of our time. This is not about telling parents how to care for their children. Parents are already doing everything they can, but social media is one of the biggest problems discussed among parents across our country. I've spoken to countless parents who are literally crying out for help, telling me they need action to protect their children from the risks online. Polling from YouGov shows that 77 per cent of parents support measures to safeguard children from the harmful effects of social media. Parents know the dangers these platforms pose for their children, and they want us to help them take action. They want us to help them protect their children.
The data tells a harrowing story. The mental health of Australian children, especially girls, has deteriorated at an alarming rate over the past decade. Hospitalisations for self-harm among girls aged 10 to 14 have increased by over 300 per cent in that time. Young boys are targeted by sexual predators, with the AFP reporting hundreds of incidents this year alone, and those are the incidents that are reported. What about those that go unreported, where the parents are unaware of the grooming and attempted grooming of their children? There need to be mechanisms in place to minimise this as much as humanly possible.
We had a hearing on Monday, albeit it a brief one, in relation to this matter, and I was deeply disturbed by some of the comments from one of the witnesses, who suggested that there was an exaggeration as to harms found online. I don't think there's an exaggeration. I think it's very real, and I think it's incredibly problematic. If we continue to pretend that it's not happening, it will continue to get worse and worse unchecked. We have a responsibility and an accountability to protect these children. I read an article recently which talked about the challenge of putting this genie back into the bottle. We can't walk away from this just because it's hard. We can't walk away from it just because it's uncomfortable, and we can't walk away from it just because some of the kids won't like it. That's a reality. It's a shift and it's a change in what we have said is acceptable. But what we are saying here today is that we do not think it's acceptable for our children to be exposed to harms and predators online or for that to continue to occur under our watch.
These statistics should be a wake-up call for all of us. Social media, which we look to to connect us, is instead contributing to a growing crisis in our children's mental health. We cannot point to the issue of a loss of some of that connection as the reason to cling onto it in the face of the damage being done to our children. It is not a zero-sum game.
This is not just about the harmful content. Kids face pressure, bullying and unrealistic beauty standards. They think that everything that they see there is how things should be. We all know, as adults, that what we see on social media is not necessarily real. Most of us had the opportunity to grow up without it forming our opinions. We owe that same ability to have a childhood to our own children, and we need to stop the toxic culture of comparison that these platforms offer and foster.
This bill seeks to address these issues head on and protect our children from the negative effects of social media. This legislation represents a major step forward in protecting the privacy and wellbeing of Australian families. The coalition has worked to ensure that this bill includes critical privacy protections to ensure that no platform can force users to provide sensitive personal information, such as digital IDs, drivers licences or passports. This is not about surveillance. It's about protecting our children in a world that is increasingly digital.
I also want to highlight that, while this legislation shapes an important step forward, it should be just the beginning. We must take further action to address another critical issue that is damaging the wellbeing of young people: the toxic prevalence and normalisation of pornography and its continued availability in the lives of children and adolescents. A study conducted this year by the Queensland University of Technology revealed a stark and disturbing reality. Pornography is playing a significant role in shaping young people's sexual understandings, expectations and experiences. Even more troubling is the finding that children as young as eight, nine and 10 are being exposed to this harmful content online. We cannot hide from this and pretend it's somebody else's problem. It's our problem. This is insidious and damaging and cannot be ignored. The impact of early exposure to pornography is profound, distorting young minds and contributing to unrealistic and unhealthy views of relationships. We must extend our efforts to help parents protect their children from this dangerous content that they are too often exposed to and take steps to limit the availability and accessibility of pornography to children.
We need stronger laws and more comprehensive measures to tackle all of these issues head on and to ensure that we are doing everything in our power to safeguard the mental and emotional wellbeing of the next generation. This is a fight that we cannot walk away from. This is a necessary and meaningful step towards ensuring the safety of our children online. This bill will force big tech companies to take responsibility for the products and the services that they provide and make a lot of money out of, prioritising the wellbeing of young Australians over their commercial agendas and their profits. With this legislation, we can make a real, lasting difference in protecting the next generation. This is a pivotal moment in our country. We have drawn a line in the sand. The enormous power of big tech can no longer remain unchecked in Australia.
