Australia’s Labor government has left open the possibility of changing proposed digital duty of care laws after the Coalition threatened to oppose measures aimed at protecting under-18s from harmful online material.
The legislation would require social media companies to identify and prevent children from being shown content encouraging disordered eating, pornography, violence against women, bullying and life-endangering stunts.
Communications Minister Anika Wells said she was willing to consider giving parliament, rather than ministers, greater authority over the definition of harmful content in an effort to secure the bill’s passage.
“I would be prepared to work with the coalition on the wording to make that work that meets the urgency requirement of the intent of that measure,” she told the ABC’s Insiders programme on Sunday.
The Coalition has raised concerns that ministerial discretion to designate harmful material could enable political censorship online. Ms Wells said she had been surprised by the opposition’s “eruption” over the proposals.
She also said she had not received a phone call from her opposition counterpart, Sarah Henderson, about the legislation or possible amendments.
“I just had an outright rejection of an exposure draft communicated by a press conference by the leader of the opposition,” Ms Wells said. “It’s extraordinary.”
Proposed online safety measures
For adult users, the planned rules would require illegal content to be monitored and removed quickly. Posts promoting terrorism, child exploitation and sexual violence would also be covered.
Users would be able to choose whether to continue receiving algorithm-driven feeds or switch to linear feeds showing posts from friends and accounts they follow.
The proposals follow laws strengthening Australia’s existing ban on social media use by under-16s. Those measures allow eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant to compel access to information while investigating children’s use of social media.
Technology companies could face maximum fines of 100 million Australian dollars for failing to comply. No platforms have been penalised under the laws so far, despite children reporting that age-verification measures can be easily bypassed.
