Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026

Senator LAMBIE (Tasmania) (11:27): We are debating the Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026 because this government is obsessed with rushing legislation through parliament, even when it comes to our children, before it has been properly debated and worked through. This bill is supposed to strengthen enforcement of the social media minimum age.

It is no surprise to me that we are already back here tightening up this legislation because it was so appallingly rushed through the first time around. We didn't even get a proper opportunity to debate it the first time around, because the government guillotined the debate. Karma coming back to bite you, eh?

Rushing legislation through parliament does not save time. Rushed legislation is usually bad legislation. It wastes parliament's time because we have to come back and fix what the government should have got right in the first place: 'Instead of wanting to get a headline, we've done something about social media.' It was never going to be enough.

I hope the headline was worth our Aussie kids! I would like to thank, from the bottom of my heart, the Australians and parents who have pushed and pushed the government to make social media platforms do the right thing for our children. I would especially like to acknowledge the O'Brien family, who lost their daughter Charlotte, 12, to suicide after relentless bullying on social media.

There are many more of those kids, unfortunately. As Charlotte's mum said, the social media ban is a good idea because it gives parents an easy way to talk to their children about the dangers on social media. But kids are getting around it, and once again we are making parents and kids carry the load when the responsibility to make online platforms safer should be laid at the feet of the social media platforms.

They design these toxic algorithms that target our children. They are designed to addict our children. We know that in many cases those kids have not even had to try to get around the safety barriers because the safety barriers are never presented to them in the first place.

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta—Facebook and Instagram—just paid out $18 billion to stop a lawsuit brought on by 29 US states. He paid money out. You know why, Australia?

It's not because he has a conscience—oh no. He doesn't have a conscience. He paid money out because they would end up losing.

Ex-Meta employees told the US court that concerns about toxic content were raised repeatedly and ignored because, once again, Zuckerberg has no conscience. You have none. They said: They knew … harm … was happening, but they were telling the world it wasn't.

Unconscionable, disgraceful— Senator Hanson-Young: Parasites. Senator LAMBIE: Parasites—thank you. This is not about free speech.

This is rubbish by One Nation. It's not about free speech. This is about companies who are making products to addict our kids and make money out of.

That's what this is about. Are the coalition and One Nation really standing up for the rights of the social media giants now? Is this how bad it has got in the Liberal Party?

Is this how lost you are in the system of politics these days? You're not even standing up for our Australian children. Where are their rights?

You're hoping this might bring in a bit more cash for you in political donations from the big techs, no doubt. Shame on you. Of course we'll see from the Liberal Party something that says 'we will never take money from big tech'.

Let's see what you're made of this morning. Zuckerberg has already agreed to reforms in the US, including safety measures that will no longer be opt-in but default, but these regulations that Meta have put on themselves only apply in the US. As another ex-Facebook employee revealed recently, Meta hunts for new consumers in countries that have few legal standards.

Once again, Meta has no social conscience. It has no conscience at all. It hasn't today, it hasn't in the past—and you never will, Zuckerberg.

You don't give a stuff about kids. Back in 2024, I asked the minister: what algorithm changes have you told the social media companies to make? That was two years ago, and the government is only now deciding to do something about it—chasing your tail again now it has got more out of control.

We could have been dealing with these toxic algorithms in this amendment right now. We could be doing that now—but oh no. If the government had got off its butt and acted back in 2024, our kids would have already been a lot safer online.

Instead, we are back here strengthening the commissioner's powers to enforce a social media minimum age. There is no point putting these safeguards in place if social media companies are not required to properly enforce them. We can't keep putting all the responsibility on parents while letting these companies profit off our children.

It makes me sick to the gut. The government needs to make sure the ban actually works and that social media platforms face real consequences. They're worth billions.

Start fining them in billions. That $18 billion that Meta paid out sounds like a lot of money to many of you out there, but to Meta that amounts to less than a month's worth of revenue while they're destroying your children. Oh yes, they've made money out of your kids.

They have no shame. It was announced this week that we will be back again to amend this legislation to deal with the algorithms. You might want to get on this, because the horse is bolting.

Big tech companies are not our friends, and neither one of you major parties should be taking political donations off them—but I guess we will see. If the pattern continues and the government rushes this legislation through too, I have no doubt we'll be back fixing this up as well, wasting more of the Senate's time. There is a real pattern of behaviour here.

Back in 2024 I asked the minister about imposing a duty of care on social media companies. That was two years ago, and the government still has not figured it out. We were talking about this then and we are still talking about it now.

I wonder how many kids have lost their lives, have taken their own lives, in the last two years while you've been sitting on your backside sleeping at the wheel. We know tech addiction is a massive problem and we know these platforms are deliberately designed to keep them scrolling for as long as possible. We know these algorithms push harmful content into the social media feeds of the most vulnerable young people in our country.

Legal action is being taken around the world over the damage these companies are causing, but this government continues to deal with the problem one small piece at a time. The horse is bolting over there. You'll be wearing that on your conscience if you don't get on with it.

An age limit is only one part of the solution. It was never going to be enough. It does not deal with the addictive design of these platforms.

It doesn't even touch it sideways. It does not deal with the algorithms feeding our children harmful content, which is taking them out, and that's putting it politely. It does not place a proper duty of care on the companies making billions of dollars by keeping our kids glued to their screens.

The government has known about these problems for years. It has been warned about them for years. It needs to stop rushing legislation through parliament and start dealing with the whole problem instead of segments of it.

Show some courage. You've got enough support in here. We're happy to support you.

You've got it. You mightn't have it from that side over there, but you certainly have it from us. You have the numbers, so why is it taking you so long?

Whether it's social media, online games or algorithms, these products are deliberately designed to keep our kids hooked and to hook them early. Let's talk about those bloody loot boxes. They are a big part of this problem.

They require players, often children, to spend real money without knowing what they will receive, and they are increasingly being recognised as a gambling related harm, let alone the harm they're doing to Mum's and Dad's credit cards when they steal them. That's what it's doing to our children. They teach kids to chase rewards, spend again and again.

And, when they do not get what they want, they keep coming back for 'one more try'. It's like gambling: 'Oh, I haven't won. Keep going!

I'm going to hit the big one!' My God, you're installing that in our kids from the time they get on screens. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Other countries, like Belgium, already treat certain loot boxes as gambling.

It's called courage, which is lacking over there. That is the problem with the Labor Party of today: you've lost your courage. And I'll keep calling you out for your lack of courage.

When you strip away the bright colours and cartoon characters, that is exactly what they are—they are exposing our children to gambling-like behaviour before they're even old enough to legally place a bet. It is a gateway drug: there's a wake-up call for you. The crux of this is that we already know what needs to be done to protect our Australian kids online, but this government is moving at a snail's pace.

It's just waking up to the harm caused by algorithms and addictive online design, while our kids and some of us in here have been onto it for years. I'm glad the government is strengthening this legislation, but I can tell you that, if we had got this right the first time around, Australian children would have been much safer two years ago. I want to talk about Matty French and the Youth Regiment for our children.

A few years ago, I went up for my nine days. I wanted to see what this camp, a health and wellbeing boot camp, actually does for our children. I tell you it was an eye opener, after nine days.

I watched these little, damage kids come in. By the way, over 75 per cent of them are now tech addicted, not drug and alcohol addicted. The biggest cohort on these courses is tech addicted children.

These tech addicted children are so bad. When they tell their stories, they'll tell you: 'I was so out of control, I was pushing my sister or my mum up against walls. I was putting'—13-year-olds were telling me they were putting their hands around their sisters' or their mothers' throats to get back on their bloody computers and their screens.

That's what they're doing. I'll tell you what else it does to them. Here's a wake-up call.

The day they arrive—they're called Webster packs. For Australians out there, it's like you see in aged care for a lot of medicines. They've got to have their certain medicines a day.

These kids of 13, 14 or 15 are having 10 pills a day because, apparently, it's ADHD. It's called tech addiction. You want to have a look at this course, Australians.

I can tell you it's not about being a boot camp; it's about turning these kids' lives around. By the way, this boot camp, this health and wellbeing camp, has an 85 per cent success rate of getting these kids off their screens and getting these kids back involved in being a loving member of their family. That's what it does.

The health and wellbeing camp gives them the tools to do that. That's what it does. I'll tell you, the most pleasant part of that course after nine after nine days, though, was when these kids got their bags back and their phones were in them.

Not one of those kids went straight to their bag and picked up that goddamn phone. What else I saw from day 1 to that last day was smiles on their faces and their families showing up at their graduation saying, 'My God, I've got my children back.' You want a wake-up call? I challenge any of you to go and do Matty French's Youth Regiment.

Take a few days out and go and meet with these kids and see the change in them. It is phenomenal. By the way, those Webster packs—because we have a pharmacist during that course that's dealing with all the doctors and all the pills that they're on.

Either their pills are reduced or they walk out with no Webster pack. How's that? How's that for greatness?

We've got them off the pills because mum and dad are pulling their hair out that bad. The only way that they can deal with their children is by drugging them up because of tech. How sad is that?

That is where we have got to.