A rushed inquiry into the government’s proposed laws to ban children and young teenagers from social media has been inundated with about 15,000 submissions, despite having only been open for 24 hours.
The huge response came after Elon Musk weighed into the debate, sending a social media post from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announcing the bill into the timelines of millions of X users.
The ABC understands that most submissions are variants of a template response, with 88 submissions from interest groups made public at the time of publishing.
With just three parliament sitting days left in the year — and possibly Labor’s term, depending on when an election is called — the government has moved fast to legislate its plan to get people under 16 off social media.
Elon Musk, who owns X, questioned the Australian government’s motives for a ban last week. (Reuters: Rachel Wisniewski)
The bill was referred to a Senate inquiry on Thursday and it was open for submissions until Friday. A half-day public hearing was held on Monday, with the committee due to hand down its report on Tuesday.
It will leave just over two days for the bill to pass parliament, which it is expected to do with Coalition support.
Musk questions government’s motive
Under Labor’s plans, children younger than 16 will be barred from using social media platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and X.
The onus will be on tech companies to take reasonable steps to prevent them from accessing the platforms or face fines of up to $50 million. Parents and users who find ways to flout the rules will not face penalties.
Both the government and the Coalition argue that the drastic step of blocking young people from social media is necessary to protect their mental health and safety.
But others say it may end up causing more harm than good, including some mental health advocacy organisations which have warned the inquiry that cutting kids off from their online networks may exacerbate isolation.
Social media companies have also criticised the move. Digital Industry Group Inc (DIGI), which represents the Australian digital industry, told the inquiry that the government’s focus should be on increasing the safety of platforms for children, rather than introducing a blanket ban.
Mr Musk, who owns X, the social media platform previously called Twitter, jumped into the debate on Thursday, suggesting the laws would lead to government control of the internet.
“Seems like a backdoor way to control access to the internet by all Australians,” he wrote in response to Mr Albanese’s post announcing the introduction of the bill to parliament.
Underneath Mr Musk’s post, Australian senator Pauline Hanson shared a link to the inquiry’s webpage, which included details of how to make a submission.
Mr Musk’s post was viewed at least 24.4 million times and reposted by 16,000 users, according to the social media platform.
Senate inquiries more commonly receive tens or hundreds of submissions, but prominent and contentious bills have been known to attract thousands of pro forma responses.
For example, a 2009 Senate inquiry into the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill received more than 28,000 responses, which was at the time among the highest number ever received.
Greens and independents lament ‘rushed’ process
The Greens and some independent senators have criticised how quickly the legislation is being pushed through parliament.
“The government’s deal with [Opposition Leader Peter] Dutton to ram through a social media age ban in under a week is rushed, reckless and goes against the evidence,” Greens communications spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young said.
She said a recent parliamentary inquiry into social media “heard time and time again that an age ban will not make social media safer for anyone”.
“It is complicated to implement and will have unintended consequences for young people.”
Meanwhile, some crossbenchers are yet to make up their minds on whether they will support the bill, including independent senator David Pocock who said on Monday that he supported the idea “in principle” but lamented the rushed process.
“The usual process is that the questions you don’t get to ask you then put on notice.
“It’s pretty hard seeing how you’re going to get questions back on notice if the committee’s meant to report tomorrow,” he told ABC RN Breakfast.
“This is really poor process.”
Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie also described the snap one-day hearing as “shameful” and accused the government of “trying to ram something down our throats instead of getting it right”.
During Question Time on Monday, Mr Albanese said the proposal was about setting a “new community standard” and that the world was watching Australia’s “landmark” laws.
“They are applauding what we are doing in showing leadership in this area,” he said.
If the legislation passes, the ban will not come into effect for 12 months to allow social media companies time to find ways to comply with the rules.
