The Greens have responded to the Albanese Government’s Digital Duty of Care announcement today and called for the full release of the Online Safety Act Review.
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young is Greens Spokesperson for Communications, Senator for South Australia:
“Harmful platforms are the problem, not everyday people and these corporations have a duty to ensure their product is not doing systemic harm to our democracy or our kids.
“That’s why the Greens have long called for the Government to tackle the toxic business model of social media giants with systemic EU-style measures to reduce harm.
“Forcing companies to provide a safe product is a smarter approach than banning students from YouTube.
“The Greens and experts have urged the Albanese Government to tackle the poisonous algorithms that fuel extremism, mental health problems and division in our democracy at a systemic level. We will scrutinise this legislation in detail when it is available but the Government is moving in the right direction with a Digital Duty of Care.
“The Government appears to be making announcements based on a report which is yet to be released to the public or the Parliament. The Minister should publicly release the Online Safety Act review immediately in full. The public have a right to know.
“Parents are rightfully worried about the safety of their kids online but they also know unless platforms are forced to clean up their act, their child won’t be safe online when they turn 16 either.
“The tech giants should be prohibited from collecting, selling and exploiting young people’s data to make massive profits.
“All users must also have the ability to switch off or turn down the algorithms that push unwanted content into their feeds.”
