Calls for the Australian government to rein in social media algorithms have intensified after ministers, educators and victim-survivors met to discuss rising sexual violence and misogyny affecting young people in New South Wales.
Chanel Contos, founder of the Teach Us Consent campaign, said technology companies should be required to make algorithmic feeds an opt-in service rather than exposing users to personalised recommendations by default.
Her intervention followed an urgent roundtable convened by NSW Acting Premier Prue Car and facilitated by the state’s Women’s Safety Commissioner, Dr Hannah Tonkin. The meeting examined the influence of online environments on attitudes towards gender, relationships and consent.
Participants identified harmful algorithms, online misogyny, pornography and technology-facilitated abuse as issues requiring a more co-ordinated response. They also called for stronger respectful-relationships education and better support for parents and other trusted adults speaking to children about online influences.
Ms Contos has argued that social media platforms should return to a less personalised model, with posts shown chronologically from accounts users had chosen to follow. She said recommended-content pages could be based on broad national trends rather than individual browsing habits.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said Australians should have greater control over what they see on their devices, although he has not endorsed Ms Contos’s opt-in proposal. The federal government is also preparing a digital duty of care, which would place a legal obligation on platforms to identify and reduce foreseeable risks before users report harm.
Communications Minister Anika Wells said recommender systems had become “deliberately opaque” and allowed social media companies to influence Australian culture. “Online harm has real-world consequences,” she said, adding that platforms which rewarded harmful material needed to be changed.
Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek said the government was working with Teach Us Consent, including through funding of about A$7.5 million for respectful-relationships education and related work on algorithms. She said young people were increasingly being exposed to pornography and damaging ideas about relationships at an early age.
Ms Contos has warned that consent lessons in schools face an uphill struggle while platforms continue directing young people towards misogynistic content designed to keep them engaged. She said the algorithms were helping to turn misogyny into a profitable online industry.
The NSW roundtable is expected to inform a new state sexual violence plan due to be released in 2027. The Commonwealth and NSW women’s safety commissioners will also begin work focused on the experiences of young women and girls, in partnership with advocates with lived experience.
