Key Points
- A report by a former head of the High Court proposes introducing legislation to ban children under 14 from accessing social media.
- The law would also require companies to obtain parental permission for 14- and 15-year-olds to use their platforms.
- South Australian Prime Minister Peter Malinauskas said he expects social media companies to resist such legislation.
Social media giants will face “hefty” fines if they allow children under 14 to create accounts and face legal action from parents of children who have suffered harm, under a proposed South Australian law that the government says is suitable for all jurisdictions.
A report by former High Court Chief Justice Robert French, published on Sunday, includes draft legislation setting out the legislative framework to ban children under 14 from accessing social media.
The proposed legislation would also require companies to obtain parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to use their platforms.
Releasing the report on Sunday, South Australian Prime Minister Peter Malinauskas said the bill would create systemic social accountability on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to ensure they take all reasonable steps to prevent children to have access to it.
“This is an obligation on the social media companies themselves and is exactly what we know they will resist,” he said.
If approved, the South Australian Children (Social Media Safety) Bill 2024 would be the first of its kind in Australia and would impose a “positive obligation and duty” on social media platforms.
The system would be overseen by a regulator tasked with monitoring compliance and imposing sanctions against social media platforms, including allowing parents to sue for damages if their child has suffered harm because a service provider has failed to fulfill its obligations under the law.
The consequences for providers would be “serious and harsh,” Malinauskas said.
“The regulator can take action and also, in the most severe cases, impose civil penalties of seven figures or more against these platforms in case they violate the law,” he said. -he declared.
“We want to create a big, massive deterrent against these giant corporations when they harm our children.”
French’s report notes that while it is legally possible for South Australia to create its own regulator, the timetable would be “significant”.
“An alternative approach would be to obtain Commonwealth agreement to confer a new state regulatory function on the Commonwealth Electronic Security Commissioner,” French wrote.
Its report also recommends a category of exempt social media, where there are low risks or benefits to users, such as educational apps.
French also stressed that no regime was perfect and that it would be difficult to ensure compliance as it required age assurance measures, location measures and, where appropriate, verification of parental consent .
“There will undoubtedly be workarounds by savvy child users,” he said.
“However, the perfect should not be the enemy of the good.
“A beneficial effect of the law could be to make parents believe that it is the law, not them, that restricts access to social media for children in South Australia.”
Malinauskas discussed the proposal with other premiers, chief ministers and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a National Cabinet meeting on Friday, when he made clear the state Labor government’s preference was to collaborate.
The South Australian and New South Wales governments are hosting a two-day summit in October focused on exploring and managing the impacts of social media.
