Treasurer Jim Chalmers has stopped short of endorsing calls for social media algorithms to become opt-in, despite describing the content being pushed towards children as “rubbish”.
Chanel Contos, the chief executive of Teach Us Consent, is due to address the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, where she will argue that algorithm-driven feeds are exposing young users to harmful material and contributing to sexual violence in Australia.
Ms Contos is urging the federal government to require platforms to obtain users’ affirmative consent before activating personalised recommendation systems. Her “Fix Our Feeds” campaign says users should be able to choose an algorithm-free feed showing only content from accounts they follow.
Asked about the proposal, Mr Chalmers said he was deeply concerned by the material being delivered to young people but did not commit the government to an opt-in model.
“I think like most Australians, and I think particularly most Australian parents, I find it really disturbing the rubbish that is fed to our kids, and to our population more broadly, with these algorithms,” he said.
“It’s self-evident that social media, and particularly the way these social media algorithms work, are not doing us a lot of good,” he added. “It’s hard to mount a credible argument that what we’re seeing with social media algorithms is a force for good in our community or in our country.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said Australians should have more control over the material they receive online, but has also stopped short of backing Ms Contos’s preferred approach.
The government is considering measures to give users greater control over algorithmic recommendations as it develops broader online safety reforms. Communications Minister Anika Wells has described recommender systems as “deliberately opaque” and said platforms that reward harmful content must be addressed.
An exposure draft of Labor’s proposed Digital Duty of Care legislation is expected later this month. The scheme would place a legal obligation on online platforms to identify and reduce foreseeable risks to users, rather than relying mainly on people to report harm after it has occurred.
Ms Contos is expected to warn that weaker reforms could allow technology companies to devise systems that appear to change the way feeds operate while leaving their business models largely untouched.
She will also argue that algorithmic feeds can draw young men towards misogynistic online communities, often referred to as the “manosphere”, undermining efforts in schools to teach consent and healthy relationships.
