The Australian government’s upcoming legislation banning children from social media poses a grave threat to freedom of expression, says the country’s preeminent free speech advocacy group.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday announced the plan to enforce a yet-to-be-determined minimum age for access to social media and “relevant digital platforms”, saying it would protect children from online harms.
I want children to have a childhood and parents to have peace of mind. pic.twitter.com/ag2u52Bpui
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) September 9, 2024
But Dr Reuben Kirkham, Co-Director of the Free Speech Union of Australia, said he was concerned about the move, describing it as “mass censorship” and highlighting three main issues.
“Firstly we are concerned that the real motives are about asserting control over the information that people are able to consume,” Dr Kirkham said.
“Governments all around the world, perhaps especially the Australian government, have expressed a desire to censor so-called ‘hate speech’ and ‘misinformation’, by which they mean opinions they disagree with and disdain – who can trust them to wield the power of censorship responsibly once the legislation and technology is in place to do so?
“Secondly, we are worried the issue of child safety is being used as a trojan horse to bring in digital ID and verification systems which will effectively undermine the idea of a free and open internet.
“Once access to the internet is able to be mediated by digital identity and verification technology, we can have little faith that governments will only use this technology to prevent children’s access to social media. We fear the appetite for censorship will expand until free speech on the internet is snuffed out.”
Dr Kirkham said the third area of concern was practicality, pointing out that similar efforts had been tried and failed in the past and recommending that the government support responsible parenting instead.
“We accept that there is reason to suspect that young people can sometimes be harmed by information they access online, but isn’t the best way of handling this problem supporting responsible parenting?” he said.
“Rather than banning information, we call on the government to provide more information to parents on the risks of social media and internet usage for young people and also information about the tools and parenting strategies they can use to keep their children safe. Isn’t more speech a better way of handling the problem than mass censorship?”
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said on Tuesday that “parents want real solutions” and the legislation would “identify and implement these very solutions to help ensure young people can use the internet in a safe and positive way”.
“We are also holding big tech to account because platforms and online services have a key responsibility for the safety of their users,” she said.
“We will continue to engage experts, young people, advocates and parents through the age assurance trial which is an important aspect of this journey.”
Ms Rowland is also the architect of a revised “combatting misinformation and disinformation bill” that was introduced to parliament on Thursday.
The Albanese Labor government introduced two more related bills on the same day, the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024, and the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024.
