The Australian government has announced landmark privacy legislation that requires social media platforms to provide stronger protections for children and young adults on social media.
The new draft legislation requires platforms to strengthen their age verification requirements, which will include obtaining parental consent for users under 16. It also contains provisions to ensure transparency and stronger protections for users’ personal information by social media platforms.
Commenting on the draft legislation, Dr Justine Humphry said: “Importantly, solutions to strengthening children’s online safety cannot be purely technological or regulatory – they will only work if they lead to a change in practices around social media use in Australian households.”
“We want to promote the positive and safe use of social media in a way that recognises young people’s right to engage, as well as their shared responsibility for online safety,” said Dr Humphry.
The team of University of Sydney researchers – Dr Justine Humphry, Dr Jonathon Hutchinson, and Dr Olga Boichak – have been awarded funding by the eSafety Commissioner to better understand young people’s practices for navigating social media and co-design and produce educational resources to strengthen media literacy among children and their parents and carers.
The project involves collaboration with Youth Action – the peak body representing young people and the services that support them in NSW, and Student Edge – a large member-based student organisation in Australia that specialises in research among young people.
Together with the project partners, the researchers will engage young people in participatory research and the design of social media educational media resources and online guides on a range of key and emerging online safety issues, including age-verification systems, data profiling and digital disconnection as well as cyberbullying and online abuse.
