Communications Minister Anika Wells is not happy a bill to double penalties for tech companies refusing to comply with the social media ban has been sent off to a Senate inquiry. Photo: Region.
The Federal Government is venting its frustration at Senate delays over the move to slap tougher penalties on tech giants that snub the under 16s social media ban.
Labor has new legislation to double penalties for social media platforms breaching their obligations to disable accounts for children under 16 and to refuse any new such accounts to be opened.
The penalties would jump from $49.5 million to $99 million, with the legislation also aimed at giving the eSafety Commissioner more investigative powers.
Those powers would enable eSafety to compel the technology firms and their contractors to hand over internal documents referring to age-verification and their compliance or otherwise.
The bill was introduced in response to increasing reports of young teenagers being able to easily open new social media accounts without being asked to verify their ages.
Since the social media ban came into effect six months ago, five million accounts have been removed and the government is hailing its move as world-leading, noting that a number of other countries are considering following Australia’s example.
But Labor says it must act even tougher against those companies who continue to allow children under 16 to get around the ban and use social media.
While there have been no prosecutions yet over the existing laws, the government wants penalties doubled.
But this week, the Coalition and the Greens voted to send the bill to a Senate inquiry for further scrutiny.
The inquiry will run for eight weeks over the Federal Parliament’s winter break, which starts next week.
The Senate would then vote on the bill in August.
Communications Minister Anika Wells is not happy with the delay and has accused Opposition Leader Angus Taylor of siding with big tech over the safety of Australia’s children.
“I think Angus Taylor should explain why he is honestly giving big tech eight more weeks to prepare their case, eight more weeks to get their ducks in a row, potentially eight weeks to shred documents now that they know these changes are coming,” she said on Thursday (2 July).
“It is a craven and trivial decision for Angus Taylor to push this off for eight weeks to get himself through the week basically when 120,000 Australian parents asked the Australian parliament to act.
“Until yesterday, this was a bipartisan measure proudly vetted across the world and it’s on Angus Taylor to explain why a 500-word, four-page bill needs eight weeks of inquiry.”
Deputy Opposition Leader Jane Hume defended the move, describing the new legislation as “undercooked”.
She added that while the Opposition supported the social media ban for under 16s, the government wasn’t making it work.
“This bill, we think, may well be inadequate,” Senator Hume said.
“Clearly, big tech are simply laughing at Anika Wells because they’re not being charged and she can’t charge them.
“We want to help her, but we want to get this done right this time. That’s why it needs scrutiny in the Senate.”
But in the Senate on Wednesday, shadow communications minister Sarah Henderson said “the devil was in the detail” and that the proposed further changes to the law required examination.
“Labor’s attempt to ram through the parliament new powers for the eSafety Commissioner without proper scrutiny is unacceptable,” Senator Henderson said.
The Greens also backed the inquiry, with Senator Sarah Hanson-Young saying the current laws are not even working properly so any changes would need thorough scrutiny.
“What we know is that the social media ban has fundamentally failed to protect young people online,” she said.
“It has failed to take the big stick to big tech because it was wrong from the beginning.”
Even Australian Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay agreed there should be further scrutiny of Labor’s bill.
“Strengthening a law before it has been properly operationalised risks responding to a problem that has not yet been clearly diagnosed,” Commissioner Finlay said.
“The original bill that introduced the social media ban was rushed through parliament, with Australians given just one day to provide submissions.”
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
