CANBERRA, Australia — The Australian government has put forward landmark proposed legislation that would upend default social media practices across the country, giving users 16 years and older the explicit right to opt out of algorithmic content curation for their feeds and placing sweeping new child safety obligations on major digital platforms.
Speaking to reporters in the national capital on Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese outlined that the proposed rules would mandate large social media services to build dedicated user empowerment tools. These tools would provide lasting, meaningful control over what content appears on a user’s homepage feed, ending the long-standing industry norm of forcing personalized algorithmic recommendations on all account holders by default.
Under the draft framework, all new and existing users will receive a clear notification prompting them to make an active choice about their feed settings. Users can opt to retain an algorithm-driven default feed that surfaces personalized content tailored to their browsing history and engagement patterns, or they can reject algorithmic curation entirely. For those who opt out, feeds will only display chronological content from friends, followed accounts and creators the user has explicitly chosen to follow.
Child safety sits at the core of the new regulatory package, which carries the name Digital Duty of Care legislation. The proposed rules require platforms to block minors from accessing a range of harmful content that has been linked to severe mental health harm, including material that promotes eating disorders, misogynistic hostile ideology, pornography, criminal activity and dangerous, high-risk physical stunts. The scope of the law extends beyond major social media platforms too: digital services ranging from online video games and mobile applications to AI-powered chatbots will also be required to implement safeguards against harmful design features, including addictive interface elements and functions that erode young users’ self-esteem.
This new proposal builds on Australia’s already history-making digital regulatory regime. In December of last year, the country became the first nation in the world to enact legislation banning users under the age of 16 from opening personal accounts on the world’s largest social platforms, which include Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook, as well as ByteDance-owned TikTok. Despite that 2023 rule, enforcement has faced ongoing scrutiny: in April this year, Australia’s independent online safety watchdog announced it was weighing formal court action against five major platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube — over allegations that the companies have failed to take sufficient action to exclude under-16 users from their services.
Albanese emphasized that the new framework shifts accountability for safe, user-centric digital practices directly onto big tech companies. “It gives users choice and it will hold the big tech companies responsible for inaction,” the prime minister said. “If they don’t follow our laws, they will face significant penalties.” The maximum financial penalty for violations of the Digital Duty of Care legislation would reach 109.2 million Australian dollars, equivalent to roughly $78.6 million U.S. dollars.