In a rare moment of unity between the Greens and One Nation, the Albanese government is being accused of attempting to “ram” the legislation to ban under-16s from social media through the parliament, as the bill prompts a strong public response.
As the government attempted to legislate the age ban in the final sitting week of parliament for 2024, a Senate committee hearing on the legislation was given four hours to hear from mental health experts, the privacy commissioner, the digital platform representatives and the communications department.
The bill has generated strong reaction from the public, despite the speed at which it is being moved through the parliament. Guardian Australia understands the committee has received more than 15,000 submissions in the short timeframe for responses.
The secretariat for the committee had not confirmed this figure, but in an auto-response email stated: “The committee has received a large volume of material on the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 [Provisions] inquiry and the secretariat is processing it as quickly as possible.”
In written submissions to the inquiry, Elon Musk’s X platform expressed concern about the lawfulness of the bill, but said the company was “currently examining different age assurance options”. Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, said the ban was not backed by evidence from experts.
At the hearing on Monday, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young described it as a “very rushed” and “very inadequate process” to which One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts replied: “Hear, hear.”
Hanson-Young also pushed the communications department to explain why this legislation was being examined before the government had released the review into the online safety act.
“This is why this is such a joke. A piece of legislation is being rammed through that relates directly to the issues that were raised in this review … It’s been kept secret from the public, secret from the Senate, and you’re asking us to ram through a piece of legislation without any evidence,” she said.
The legislation allows the minister to later determine which platforms are included in the ban and which are not. While the minister has indicated it would cover platforms such as those owned by Meta, as well as TikTok and Snapchat, the scope will be determined later at ministerial discretion. Platforms lobby group Digi’s head of policy, Dr Jennifer Duxbury, told the committee this was a “serious flaw” in the legislation.
“The bill doesn’t make it clear who is in or out of scope. And to us, that is a really serious flaw in the bill, but it is absolutely unclear who is in or out, and we don’t know what criteria will be used to determine these exemptions,” she said.
Digi’s managing director, Sunita Bose, also said that the age-assurance system would affect every user – not just those under 16.
“To verifiably know whether someone is 14 or 40, young people and adults alike will need to take regular actions like providing an ID, an image of their face, or link to myGovID,” she said.
Some Coalition members of parliament expressed reservations about the age-assurance system if it uses the digital ID, something the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, sought to rule out.
LNP senator Matt Canavan also said the Senate only had one shot to get the legislation right.
“Can you point me to the bit in the legislation which restricts the eSafety commissioner from designating digital ID as a means of age verification … Once it goes through the Senate, that’s it. I don’t get to touch it again. Is there anything in the law that says that?”
The department, while stressing the age-assurance system would not use the digital ID, could not point out where in the bill it expressly prohibited the use of the federal government’s digital ID.
Independent MP Zoe Daniel introduced a private member’s bill into parliament on Monday requiring the platforms to make their algorithms safer or faces large fines, calling it a better alternative to a ban. The Greens backed the bill – the Guardian understands Hanson-Young will move amendments to the social media ban bill to introduce a duty of care obligation, which the government had announced it would introduce at a later date.
The committee is due to report back to parliament on Tuesday, before the final sitting days for 2024 this week.
