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Speaker 1: Jumb mission with Jones and Amanda.

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Speaker 2: These next figures are ones we never like to hear.

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Speaker 2: Since twenty fourteen, prescriptions of antidepressants for children aged twelve

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Speaker 2: to seventeen have increased by more than seven percent. Self

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Speaker 2: harm hospitalizations for young people have increased, particularly for girls

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Speaker 2: aged fourteen and younger. It's doubled in the last decade.

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Speaker 2: The reasons for this are varied and complex, but we

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Speaker 2: do know that social media is a big part of

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Speaker 2: the problem. Well, now the Assistant Minister for Mental Health,

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Speaker 2: David Coleman, is proposing a new privacy measure, or a

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Speaker 2: series of new privacy measures for kids. He joins us

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Speaker 2: now to explain all of this.

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Speaker 1: Hello, Minister, Good morning Amanda. Hello minister, Hi Jamesie.

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Speaker 2: So tell us about this new online privacy bill that

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Speaker 2: you're working on and what released.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Sure, So basically, we know from history that we

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Speaker 1: can't rely on social media to act in the best

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Speaker 1: interests of kids. It's very clear. So what we're going

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Speaker 1: to do is force them to do that. So we're

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Speaker 1: creating a new law in Australia where social media companies

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Speaker 1: must act in the best interests of children and if

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Speaker 1: they don't they can get fined up to ten percent

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Speaker 1: of their entire Australian revenue, which are some of these

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Speaker 1: companies is tens of millions of dollars, so really big

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Speaker 1: change in the future. If they don't act in the

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Speaker 1: best interests of kids, they'll be breaking the law.

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Speaker 2: And what do you mean by acting in the best

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Speaker 2: interests of kids? How are they not doing that?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll give you an example. So let's say you've

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Speaker 1: got a young kid who's on social media and maybe

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Speaker 1: is showing some insecurity about the body issues, might be

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Speaker 1: following a whole lot of glamorous celebrities or whatever. What

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Speaker 1: these social media platforms will do on occasion is send

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Speaker 1: that child to content which is very dangerous for them.

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Speaker 1: It might be extreme dieting content, it might be content

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Speaker 1: about eating disorders. It might, on some occasions send them

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Speaker 1: to content about self harm. And it's completely unacceptable that

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Speaker 1: that happens. The social media companies are the most sophisticated

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Speaker 1: users of data in the world when they're trying to

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Speaker 1: sell ads, and what we're saying is you're going to

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Speaker 1: have to use that same sophisticated technology to protect kids.

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Speaker 1: It's obviously not in their best interests to be directing

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Speaker 1: children to that sort of content.

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Speaker 3: And what we're seeing now, and I guess this is

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Speaker 3: a bigger picture, is the silo information that people get.

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Speaker 3: So if you've got an anti lockdown type person or

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Speaker 3: an anti vaccination person and they've got their own, say,

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Speaker 3: Instagram page, all those other people will join on there.

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Speaker 3: So that silo of information is not broad. It's just

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Speaker 3: for whoever followers that they have, but they're spreading misinformation well.

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Speaker 1: And that sort of thing can happen when it comes

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Speaker 1: to kids as well. So you can have a child

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Speaker 1: that you know, maybe they joined social media initially for

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Speaker 1: funny dancers or whatever, but then over time the algorithm

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Speaker 1: learns about them, learns about what they're interested in, and

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Speaker 1: will often send them to staff that is really bad

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Speaker 1: for them. And it's been going on for at least

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Speaker 1: a decade. The social media companies have had ample time

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Speaker 1: to fix this issue. They haven't done it. It's totally

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Speaker 1: unacceptable and we're going to change it. So the legislation

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Speaker 1: that we've released a couple of weeks ago, it's out

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Speaker 1: for public comment now and anyone who wants to comment

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Speaker 1: on it can and then our intention is to legislate

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Speaker 1: it through Parliament early next year.

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Speaker 2: And one of the big things too, is to make

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Speaker 2: sure that they've taken every step they can to verify

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Speaker 2: that someone is over the age of sixteen.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, Amanda. So historically the social media companies

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Speaker 1: have said when it comes to verifying age, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's all too hard, which has been very convenient for

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Speaker 1: them because if it's all too hard, it means they

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Speaker 1: can continue to service underage kids. What we're saying here is, well, no,

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Speaker 1: that's not okay. You're very sophisticated at identifying data, identifying

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Speaker 1: the profile of your users, and you're going to have

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Speaker 1: to identify kids who are underage. Facebook has recently said,

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Speaker 1: after years of saying this was all too hard, that

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Speaker 1: they've actually identified six hundred thousand underage kids on Instagram

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Speaker 1: and removed them from Instagram, so it can be done.

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Speaker 1: It's just that they haven't done it. But this law

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Speaker 1: is going to require them to do it. And again,

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Speaker 1: the fine is a lot more than a slap on

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Speaker 1: the wrist. It's up to ten percent of their total

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Speaker 1: Australian revenue.

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Speaker 3: And it seems to me that it's all upside. Is

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Speaker 3: there a downside to any of this. Are we encroaching

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Speaker 3: on free speech? Some people might.

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Speaker 1: Say, I don't believe so at all. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: think when it comes to children, there is a very

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Speaker 1: high obligation on the part of government society in general

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Speaker 1: to protect them. We know, we've seen very concerning trends

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Speaker 1: in kids' mental health, and while social media isn't the

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Speaker 1: only factor, it is absolutely a factor, and so we

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Speaker 1: should always lean forward when it comes to protecting kids.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I think there are a lot

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Speaker 1: of families out there that have had very concerning experiences

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Speaker 1: with their kids on social media. The social media companies

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Speaker 1: are very good at ducking and weaving and pointing to

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Speaker 1: things that they say they're doing, but the bottom line

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Speaker 1: is they haven't fixed this problem, and you know, the

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Speaker 1: them and is sick of it. I'm sick of it.

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Speaker 1: I think the community is sick of it, and we're

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Speaker 1: going to change it.

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Speaker 3: And you can have a say about this as well.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, how do we do that?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? So if you go to a website, it's Consultations

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Speaker 1: dot AG, dot gov, dot AU and on that side

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Speaker 1: it explains the information about the law and anyone can comment, so,

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Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't have to be an academic or

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Speaker 1: an expert, so to speak. We want to hear from

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Speaker 1: the community. We want to hear from families that have

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Speaker 1: been affected by this issue. You can comment anonymously if

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Speaker 1: you like, or if you're happy for your contribution to

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Speaker 1: be published, you can do that too, But yeah, we

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Speaker 1: want to hear from people because we think this is

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Speaker 1: a really important law. It's going to be a significant

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Speaker 1: change and we want to get as much community input

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Speaker 1: as we can.

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Speaker 3: Well, thank you, Minister, Minister David Coleman. They're head to

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Speaker 3: consultations dot ag, dot gov dot are you. Thank you

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Speaker 3: for joining us.

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Speaker 1: Thanks guys, thanks, thanks for your time. Jonesy and Amanda's