Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

():  I rise to take note of the minister's attendance on this issue today. What we have seen since this government brought in the social media ban is virtually nothing else done. Virtually nothing else has been done to make sure our social media companies are providing safe places for not just young people but people of all ages, those who fall through the cracks, those that are legitimately all still online and those that access YouTube without having a logged-in account. That's how most kids are watching YouTube these days. Without an account, you can access anything you want.

We've just had a landmark ruling in the United States today that has found that Meta and Google have deliberately used their platforms to target people with addictive algorithms that cause them harm. These big multibillion- and multitrillion-dollar companies are making massive profits off a product that they have designed to be deliberately harmful and addictive, just like poker machines. The gambling industry designed poker machines to be addictive, and that addiction is harmful. It is exactly the same with these big social media companies. These platforms are harmful and dangerous. Today in the United States, a jury has just ruled that they are so harmful that these big social media companies now need to pay and that they are liable.

What is the Australian government going to do about this? Yes, they've brought in the social media ban, and that deals with knocking some young people offline, but it does nothing to force these platforms to provide safe spaces for their users—for the public. We are now in a world where social media is effectively a service that everybody uses. It's how people engage with government services, how they engage with access to information in their community, how they stay connected to their friends and family, how they trade and run businesses and how they connect with their educational institutions. If you're not on social media, it is very hard to be an active member of our community.

There is no online or offline anymore; it is the same, and the rules need to be the same. There needs to be responsibility targeted and held at the feet of these big social media companies where, if they're going to engage and offer products and services, they must do it in a safe way. They've been making mega profits off harmful products, just like the tobacco industry and the gambling industry, and they need to be held to account. The Labor government, the Albanese government, promised well over 18 months ago that they would introduce rules and laws to force these companies to have a duty of care to the people who access their products. Eighteen months later and we've seen nothing from the Albanese government. The minister has been asleep at the wheel on this.

These platforms and big tech bros continue to make money off Australians from products that they know are harmful and deliberately designed to be addictive. Doomscrolling is not by accident. Doomscrolling is a deliberate design feature. The tech companies have known this for years; they have sold their advertising and data access on that basis. It is part of their business model. That needs to be tackled head-on. We've got to have a government that has the guts to take on the tech companies properly and force them to have a duty of care to the Australian people.