Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced this Tuesday a new bill that aims to restrict the activity of social media giants and impose fines of approximately 70 million euros on companies that do not protect minors from harmful content. Albanese stated that "we will not continue to allow Australian children to be treated as commodities rather than as children," highlighting the Labor government's commitment in this area.
The new text, presented two years after the approval of the "Online Safety Amendment Act," will impose a "duty of care" on social media operators, holding them responsible for any exposure of minors under 18 to pornography, online harassment, content that glorifies criminality and encourages eating disorders. The law will also require operators to allow users to disable the algorithms that determine suggested content. Any non-compliance will be punishable by a fine of 109 million Australian dollars.
The new legislation is expected to be submitted to the Australian Parliament by the end of the year, after being presented to the companies involved. Communications Minister Anika Wells called this the "moment of truth" for the tech giants, referring to sometimes "disastrous" consequences of their platforms.
Last year, Australia became the first country in the world to ban social media for minors under 16, a measure that, however, has been widely circumvented, according to an August study. This new bill comes in a context of growing criticism of social media operators worldwide, with Meta, for example, agreeing to pay up to 17 billion dollars and restrict access to Instagram and Facebook for teenagers in approximately fifty states in the United States.
