“About Bloody Time”: Wallace Slams Prime Minister for Failure of Leadership, Lack of Urgency on Social Media Reform

Heartbroken families and experts across the country watched on today as Anthony Albanese and the Federal Labor Government finally succumbed to a fierce campaign for age verification and social media restrictions. But many will have switched off his media appearance with more questions than answers.

Why did he take so long to act? Why does he not have a sense of urgency about the issue? What will really come from yet another press conference? One of Parliament’s leading voices for social media reform has called out the Prime Minister for his weak leadership and reprehensible failure when it comes to addressing the harms caused by social media.

“It’s about bloody time. But if they really cared about keeping kids safe, Labor could have passed the laws that we introduced this time last year. 12 months have passed since we put a solution on the table. The only reason Anthony Albanese is finally doing something is because he’s been backed into a corner by Peter Dutton, the Coalition, by desperate parents, and by the media,” Mr Wallace said.

“Today we saw Anthony Albanese and Michelle Rowland standing up at a press conference, puffing their chest and boasting that social media companies are ‘on notice’,” Mr Wallace continued, “Meanwhile, their age verification trial – which isn’t even compulsory for social media companies – still hasn’t even started.”

“Every day they delay, innocent children are falling victim to cyberbullying, sexploitation, and mental health harms. Children like Ella Catley-Crawford in Brisbane, Tilly Rosewarne in Bathurst. Lives are lost because this arrogant government is more interested in announcements than action,” Mr Wallace added.

“In Question Time this week, the Minister provided social media platforms with a ‘get out of jail free card’, when she said that platforms would only need to “demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to comply with our laws” – meaning that their compliance would, in effect, be optional,”Mr Wallace cautioned.

Social media platforms have demonstrated time and time again that their only interest is monetary gain. Any regulatory regime that only requires reasonable efforts to comply from social media platforms will fail Australian families.

How did we get here? In 2021, Andrew Wallace, as Chair of the Social Policy and Legal Affairs Committee published the Protecting the Age of Innocence Report, calling for age verification for online pornography and gambling. In 2023, the eSafety Commissioner released a long-awaited Roadmap for Age Verification, which the Federal Labor Government initially rejected, to the approval of the predatory porn industry.

A year ago, the Coalition introduced legislation to implement an age verification trial. After a sustained campaign, the Albanese Government acceded to an age verification trial, which remarkably has yet to commence, and which will not even require social media companies to comply. In June 2024, Peter Dutton committed to implementing age verification and restricting social media access to Australians over the age of 16, as a matter of priority for a Coalition Government. After mounting pressure, Anthony Albanese committed to exploring the issue and ultimately was forced to get on board.

“Desperate families, the Coalition, and countless experts have been fighting for this tooth and nail. Every step of the way, Anthony Albanese has been dragged kicking and screaming to the podium. But his announcements have amounted to absolutely nothing. Australians don’t trust what he says, and they have seen time and again that he doesn’t have the strong leadership required to hold big tech to account and to keep kids safe online. It has become clear that only Peter Dutton and the Coalition can get the country back on track,” Mr Wallace concluded.