‘Big tech wants this to fail’: beef-up for social ban | Sunbury & Macedon Ranges

By Zac De Silva, Poppy Johnston and Ben Mckay, Aap Tech companies have been dragging their feet on enforcing Australia’s child social media ban because they want the age limit to fail, federal leaders say. Existing provisions barring children under 16 from platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Reddit will be strengthened through planned changes to legislation. The online watchdog will be granted greater powers and the maximum fine for breaches doubled to $99 million under the proposals, which are due to be introduced to parliament within days. Digital giants would need to provide the eSafety Commissioner with more information about how they were enforcing the world-first ban, Communications Minister Anika Wells said this week. “We know big tech wants this to fail and they would want reporting of anything that shows that these laws aren’t working to 100 per cent efficacy,” she said. Pressed on why the provisions weren’t included in the original laws, Ms Wells said any significant cultural change was bound to be challenging. “My expectations are that the first three years of this will look untidy, because it is always going to be more difficult when you are taking something away,” she said. No penalties have
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