Submission to the Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society

Abstract

Recommendations

Recommendation 1. Provide online safety education and critical media literacy in schools and communities. Sexual education and critical sexual media literacy earlier in the curriculum and in families would help to mitigate the negative effects of younger children accessing or encountering online pornography via social media. Recommendation 2. Promote and support ongoing conversations about online safety with parents, carers, peers and trusted experts and expand availability of youth specialist counsellors to provide online safety advice and education. Recommendation 3. Implement strong laws and enforcement strategies to ensure social media companies comply with agreed industry codes and develop tools, moderation and features that support safer online platforms and experiences using ‘safety by design’ and ‘privacy by design’ principles. Recommendation 4. Reform of Australia’s Privacy Act and specific online privacy laws and industry codes should be hastened and developed in parallel to align with the Online Safety Act to ensure that these are complementary, mutually reinforcing and fit for purpose. Recommendation 5. Resource research and technology testing (e.g. for age verification in practice) to provide evidence of emerging online safety issues, safety technologies and literacy needs to inform the design of education, changes in codes, and new platform features and interface designs. The decision of Meta to abandon deals under the News Media Bargaining Code. Recommendation 6: The case for a funding mechanism that ensures that digital platforms contribute to the sustainability of news production remains valid. However, the News Media Bargaining Code is less likely to be able to perform this role over the medium-term. The Federal Government should investigate the possibility of developing a levy on online advertising whose revenues would be earmarked towards the support of news production, with particular focus on public interest journalism and news provision to underserved communities and rural, regional and remote areas. The important role of Australian journalism, news and public interest media in countering mis- and disinformation on digital platforms. Recommendation 7: There is a need for legislation that can effectively respond to the challenge of misinformation, particularly with regards to political content. Such legislation needs to have due regard to principles of free speech, legitimate differences of opinion, and respectful disagreement that characterise robust liberal democracies. The algorithms, recommender systems and corporate decision making of digital platforms in influencing what Australians see, and the impact of this on mental health. Recommendation 8: That the Australian government adopts measures similar to the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) to ensure greater digital platform transparency. Other issues in relation to harmful or illegal content disseminated over social media, including scams, age-restricted content, child sexual abuse and violent extremist material. Recommendation 9: Any regulations placed on social media platforms to prevent harm to users be extended to immersive media platforms to ensure that platforms are accountable for user safety and proactively prevent harm. This could be achieved through implementing combinations of AI-driven monitoring tools and real-time behaviour controls that can mitigate harmful interactions as they happen. Proactive governance should focus on fostering positive community norms and inclusive environments from the start.