Premier welcomes introduction of landmark social media legislation

Premier Peter Malinauskas has welcomed the Federal Government’s introduction of landmark legislation to ban children under the age of 16 from social media.

The legislation was introduced to Federal Parliament this morning and would impose fines of up to $50 million for social media companies that break the rules.

This follows the State Government commissioning former Chief Justice of the High Court the Honourable Robert French AC earlier this year to develop a legislative approach to ban children from accessing social media.

At the time of the release of Mr French’s report in September, the Premier made clear the State Government’s preferred approach was for the Commonwealth to legislate a national ban.

The Commonwealth’s legislation is similar in nature, placing the onus on social media companies to take reasonable steps to ban children’s access to social media, with an independent regulator charged with overseeing compliance with the rules.

Last month, South Australia co-hosted a Social Media Summit with the New South Wales Government, which explored the challenges of protecting children from social media.

Quotes

Attributable to Peter Malinauskas

I welcome the introduction of this landmark legislation to ban social media and congratulate the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland for taking this positive step to protect children.

The evidence is clear, social media is causing our children harm.

I believe parents across the state and indeed the nation will welcome this ban, as government takes a proactive role in helping parents protecting their children from the harms of social media.