eSafety acknowledges the announcement yesterday by South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas of a proposed bill that would limit access to social media for children under the age of 14, and between the ages of 14 and 15 years without parental consent.
The proposed bill, part of a wide-ranging and comprehensive report authored by former Chief Justice of the High Court, the Honourable Robert French AC, comes in the midst of a national debate about children’s use of social media, a debate eSafety welcomes in support of an evidence-based, nationally cohesive approach.
Mr French’s comprehensive analysis contains some useful policy ideas for future regulatory reform, while also acknowledging that effective and accurate age assurance presents challenges for implementation.
In doing so, the report highlights the complexity of this issue and notes the strong need for a national approach to be adopted, if one can be achieved.
However, if states such as South Australia undertake reform separately, eSafety believes that those legislative measures should support rather than conflict with the national regulatory framework already established under the Online Safety Act 2021 (‘OSA’).
eSafety continues to deliver strong outcomes under the OSA, including preventive and educational programs, systemic and harms-related interventions, and much greater levels of tech transparency.
For example, digital industry associations will be required to submit to eSafety enforceable codes by the end of this year limiting access by children to a range of inappropriate content types, including pornography and self-harm content. If industry cannot produce codes that meet appropriate community safeguards, the eSafety Commissioner will consider imposing mandatory standards.
Compulsory codes addressing the worst harms online, including child sexual abuse material and pro-terror content, are already in place, with stringent standards focusing on a wide range of services, including messaging and file-hosting services, set to commence in December.
Measures being contemplated by Australian governments that go beyond or seek to augment existing controls should take into account the Australian Government’s ongoing review of the Online Safety Act, which was brought forward by a year in recognition of the urgency of matters currently under discussion, including the need for a duty of care towards children and other additional regulatory tools.
The Review is now nearing completion and recommendations will be delivered to Government towards the end of 2024.
Age assurance mechanisms are also being explored by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, and the Arts, based on recommendations made by eSafety in its Age Verification Roadmap in 2023. The challenges inherent to achieving effective age assurance, as highlighted in Mr French’s report, are precisely those eSafety explained in the Roadmap.
The national discussion about appropriate limits and optimal policy settings will be underpinned by data and research – including insights from eSafety.
Last week, eSafety took steps to use new powers under the updated Basic Online Safety Expectations Determination to request information from of the world’s most popular social media and messaging services to find out just how many Australian children are on their platforms and what age assurance measures they have in place to enforce their own age limits.
Data from these requests will be compared with a pulse survey directed towards children and teens to map when and how younger Australian are accessing social media services.
Understanding the age of Australian users is essential for good policymaking. We know that many teens – even younger teens – enjoy a wide array of benefits from social media. Conversely, our research also shows almost two-thirds of 14-17 year-olds have viewed potentially harmful content in the past year.
We also know that online harms continue to threaten young people’s safety well beyond the mid-teen years. This includes harms such as financial sexual extortion, which eSafety’s data suggests tends to mainly affect young male adults between the ages of 18 and 24 years. This mixed picture is why eSafety’s multifaceted approach includes a broader focus on Safety by Design, ensuring platforms prioritise user protection in their development and deployment.
The details of any potential new legislative measures are a matter for Australia’s parliaments. Noting this, eSafety will continue to work with stakeholders across government, law enforcement, industry, education, non-government organisations and the research community to a achieve consistent, workable solutions.
We look forward to continuing these partnerships and collaborations, including through careful and independent consultation and consideration of the measures outlined yesterday to strengthen protections for young Australians online, creating a safer digital environment while preserving the benefits of social connectivity for young Australians.