Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026
Ms COFFEY (Griffith) (16:38): I have spoken to parents who feel exhausted by this. They want their children to have friends and they do not want them isolated, but they do not want every family dinner to become a fight about an app. They don't want to be the only household saying no.
They want a fairer set of rules. The Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026 gives parents backing. It says the burden should not sit on families alone and it says social media companies must take responsibility for the products they put into children's lives.
In my community of Griffith, I see families trying their best every day. I see it at school gates, at community events, in local sporting clubs and in conversations with parents who are proud of their children and worried about them at the same time. Griffith is full of families who care deeply about their children's wellbeing.
They want their kids to learn, explore, volunteer, play sport, join a club, get outside and be part of their community. They know technology is part of life. They are not asking for childhood to be frozen in the past.
They are seeking for childhood to be protected in the present and that is a fair ask. We can support children to use technology well, and we can set limits where harm is clear. We can value connection, and we can still say that some platforms are not suitable for under-16s.
We can back young people, and we can hold companies to account. This bill does just that. Australia's reform has not stayed within our shores; we are world leading in this area.
More than 20 countries have created or committed to creating their own laws to delay access to social media. They include countries across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America and beyond. Australia acted first, and others are now watching.
Australian parents are watching too. They do not expect perfection overnight, but they do expect persistence. They expect us to keep going, fix weak points and respond when companies drag their feet.
That is exactly what we are doing and what we will continue to do. We will continue to prioritise the health of our kids over the interests of these multinational companies. This government could not be clearer to these platforms: if you want to do business in Australia, you must obey Australian law.
The same principle applies to local businesses across our communities. It applies to local shops, cafes, builders, pharmacies and childcare centres, and it must apply to the largest technology companies in the world. It is the principle behind our consumer laws.
Australians deserve clear rights, fair treatment and real protection when powerful companies do the wrong thing. For too long, some of these companies have acted as if their size puts them above the rules. They have shaped childhood, friendship, news, entertainment and social life at a speed that the law has struggled to match.
That cannot continue. This bill strengthens enforcement of the social media minimum age, but the work of protecting children online cannot end there. The next step in the government's work is to legislate a digital duty of care.
That will put responsibility on digital service providers to build safer systems and protect Australians, especially children, from harm before it occurs. I recently met with a local mother who told me what happened to her family after her eldest daughter, then just 12, was seriously harmed by an AI companion chatbot. Her daughter was first introduced to an AI roleplay website at school on a friend's phone.
From there, she built a relationship with this chatbot AI character over months. The character told her she was worthless and made references to self-harm. Looking back, her mother described the exchanges as having the hallmarks of grooming and gaslighting.
This was not a platform her daughter should have been able to access. The app's own terms of service said that it was not for anyone under 16, yet Google Play listed it as suitable for ages 12 and up. Her daughter was 12.
Her daughter is now in regular therapy. Her mother describes what they are managing at home as having the features of an addiction. Parents can do everything right and still find themselves outmatched by products designed to pull children back in.
Too often, safety is treated as something to add later. That is just absolutely, utterly backwards. Children should not be the testing ground for unsafe design.
Safety must be built in from the start, and that is the work that the government is continuing to undertake. The Albanese Labor government has already shown that Australia can lead the world in online safety. More than five million underage accounts have been removed, deactivated or restricted.
Early signs point to more sport, better sleep, less online bullying and less exposure to harmful content. That is real progress, but it's not the end of the task. It is not enough if platforms still leave doors open for children under 16, and it is not enough if parents are still fighting these battles alone at home.
It's not enough for powerful companies to say they are doing the right thing but then refuse to provide the evidence that proves it. This bill strengthens those laws, those important laws, that we introduced in December last year.