Social media giants are to blame for any teens skirting the social media ban, Cabinet minister Murray Watt has said while dismissing claims it is “not working”.
The Albanese government has claimed 4.7 million accounts have been closed since the world-leading ban kicked in late last year.
However, subsequent reports and case studies have suggested some teens under 16 have found ways around age verification measures rolled out by platforms.
“We’re still really proud of the fact that we’ve led the world with these reforms, and we’re now seeing a range of other countries pick them up as well,” Senator Watt told Sky’s Sunday Agenda.
“We have seen already about four million accounts disabled, but we do have concerns that the social media giants aren’t doing enough to comply with these laws.”
He said prosecution “rests in the hands of the eSafety Commissioner” and that he understood online watchdog “will have more to say before too long about this and around their compliance approach”.
“But we do have concerns that the social media giants are still not doing enough to meet their legal obligations, and we intend for them to take them very seriously,” Senator Watt said.
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has reported closing some 550,000 accounts.
Snapchat and TikTok have reported closing a combined 665,000.
Those figures have raised questions about the government’s claims that the ban has been a success.
Opposition communications spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said earlier this week “it is very clear that this policy is not delivering as promised”.
“Families were assured that this would be a practical and enforceable safeguard, yet what we have seen is confusion for parents, uncertainty for platforms and real questions about how this works in practice,” she told the Senate.
“We know this is not working. We know this is a ban riddled with defects. We know that the implementation of the ban was flawed from the very beginning.
“Yet the government has not been upfront about what is working and what isn’t.”
Echoing Senator Henderson on Sunday, fellow Liberal Senate Leader Michaelia Cash called on the government to “be upfront with the Australian people”.
“Parents are entitled to know why it’s not working or what the government’s going to do,” she said, also speaking to Sky.
“We all want to see this work. The government now needs to be upfront with the Australian people as opposed to just lauding the fact that they did it.”
Meta previously said it was concerned about the legislation, and claimed it failed to “properly consider the evidence” and industry actions to ensure platforms could be made fit for under 16s.
