STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator GREEN (Queensland—Assistant Minister for Tourism, Assistant Minister for Pacific Island Affairs and Assistant Minister for Northern Australia) (13:33): This week, senators in this place will have a chance to read speeches written by young people in our communities as part of the Raise Our Voice campaign. I'm pleased to be, I think, the first one kicking this off today.

I'm going to read a speech from 15-year-old Zainab, a Queenslander who is passionate about strengthening social media protections. Her speech reads: What if the apps we use every day were designed not to help us live better but to keep us online for as long as possible? For my generation, social media is not something that exists outside our lives; it's where we communicate, learn, create and express ourselves.

But it can also expose young people to harmful content, unrealistic expectations and systems deliberately designed to keep us scrolling. We should not have to choose between being connected and being protected. I am asking parliament to strengthen protections for young Australians by requiring social media companies to take greater responsibility for the content and design of their platforms.

This should include stronger safeguards against harmful content, and greater transparency around features designed to maximise screen time. Young people should have a voice in shaping these protections, because we are the generation growing up with this technology. Social media is not going away, and I don't believe it needs to, but innovation should never come at the expense of young people's wellbeing.

Parliament has the power to make sure technology serves our generation rather than our generation being shaped by technology. Our future deserves better than an algorithm deciding what we see, what we think and what we become. I thank Zainab for that wonderful speech and that contribution to a really important debate—a debate about protecting young people online.

This is the voice of a young person posed directly to the parliament, calling on this parliament to do exactly that: to take action to protect young Australians. (Time expired)