KENNY HEATLEY, SKY NEWS: Landmark new laws to block children from using social media will be put to Parliament today. If passed, it would set a minimum age limit of 16 for apps like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Joining me live is Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Emma McBride. Emma, appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.
ASSISTANT MINISTER EMMA MCBRIDE: Good to be with you.
HEATLEY: Tech giants face fines of up to $50 million for breaches. And it will be up to the platforms themselves to take reasonable steps to prevent those younger from 16 to accessing these sites or having an account. Is the penalty big enough to offset the profit from kids accessing social media platforms, do you think?
MCBRIDE: This is important legislative reform, and as you mentioned, the Communications Minister will be introducing this legislation into the House today. With my responsibilities for mental health and suicide prevention I have heard from parents, from teachers, from principals about their concerns about the social harm caused by social media. This is world leading legislation, and it's important that the onus and the penalty sits with big tech companies. So the penalties are significant and are there to make sure that big tech act with social responsibility to protect young people, particularly from the harms of social media.
HEATLEY: What constitutes a systematic breach to earn a $50 million fine? What is the threshold, do you know?
MCBRIDE: All of these details will be worked out through the regulatory process, and the Government has been working through an age assurance trial at the moment to make sure that we get the technology right. But what is most important, and these are the concerns that I've heard from principals, from parents, from young people themselves, is that they're protected from the harms, the social harms of big social media companies.
HEATLEY: The Government concedes that kids and parents will be able to get around it. won't be perfect, fair enough. And if that's the case, do you think that it's just an empty threat at this point?
MCBRIDE: This is important reform. And I've met with big social media companies headquartered in Australia. They have a social responsibility. With my responsibilities for mental health and suicide prevention. I have heard and seen the consequences of the harm caused online. We need to make sure that there are strong safeguards in place, particularly for young people and the most vulnerable.
HEATLEY: Snapchat will be included in the ban after some pushback by the opposition. But what happens if a new social media app emerges, which it almost certainly will straight away. Will it automatically fall under the new legislation, or will each new site need manual intervention by the Government or the eSafety Commissioner?
MCBRIDE: These things will be worked out through regulation. But as the Communications Minister has said, there will be a broad definition of what constitutes social media, and I would expect that new apps would be captured by that. It is so important to protect young people from these online harms, and we need to make sure that we get it right. And that's why we've consulted widely with researchers, with educators, with practitioners to make sure that we get this right. And this is world first. This is world leading legislation to protect young Australians.
HEATLEY: It will not be grandfathered. So kids on social media now will be booted off. Are there any mental health effects that you are seeing that might result from kids already having social media and those connections to then suddenly losing them?
MCBRIDE: What we know and hearing from experts, including mental health experts, is that there are, of course, known risks and the evidence is still emerging of the particular types of risks. But I've heard from young people themselves who are concerned about their own mental health and wellbeing. So as part of this, we're going to be strengthening our mental health measures for young people. We have a headspace network of now nearly 173 headspace networks across the country, including eheadspace offering every young Australian aged 12 to 25, access to free mental health support and care if they're in distress and before they end up in crisis.
HEATLEY: Minister, last I heard, the coalition was going to block Labor's 100,000 fee free- or taxpayer paid TAFE courses from 2027, saying Labor has not committed any funding towards the legislation. Why hasn't the Government committed funding to it?
MCBRIDE: Fee free TAFE is so important in the community where I grew up, my father was a TAFE teacher and my brother did his plumbing apprenticeship through TAFE. In my community, a third of people hold TAFE qualifications. TAFE has always been, particularly for people in the outer suburbs, in the regions, a reliable pathway to gaining the skills they need and also to filling skills gaps and shortages in our community. Of these fee free TAFE places more than 500,000 have been taken up in less than two years. People are picking up courses in construction, in early childhood education, in the care economy. Labor has committed to funding these places, and we know that this is an important investment in the future of Australians, in a skilled nation, and in our economy.
HEATLEY: Okay, we're out of time. Emma McBride, though, I really appreciate your time this morning. Thank you so much.