Social media companies would be forced to change their default privacy setting for accounts set up by children and all devices sold in Australia would have to come with parental controls, under new recommendations being considered by the federal government.
A new report from the federal parliament's social media and online safety committee also considered whether social media companies could be forced to hand over key details about the algorithms they rely on to feed users content.
The report found social media companies could be doing more to protect the privacy of young people online and suggested mandating default high-level privacy settings as a simple step.
The committee chair, Liberal MP Lucy Wicks, said while some companies were already doing so, the industry's hand needed to be forced.
"Social media platforms have had the chance to be able to do this in an optional way for a long time now," she said.
"They have known that young people are using the services to be able to communicate, talk, to text and message their friends and family — it's become an important part of their world.
The committee also wants parental controls on digital devices — like smartphones — mandated when sold in Australia.
The controls, which are already common, give parents or carers the ability to monitor, block and filter some content.
Ms Wicks said while the tools were not foolproof, they should be easier for parents to use and harder to get around.
"I think you can always aim for improvements. We heard some really good evidence about what is out there and the options that are already available, technologically speaking," she said.
"So it's absolutely possible."
The bipartisan recommendations will go to the federal government, which is already mounting other attempts to regulate social media in Australia.
An "anti-trolling" bill is currently before the parliament, attempting to create a legal framework to unmask anonymous social media users for the purposes of defamation lawsuits.
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During its hearings, the committee heard evidence from former Facebook data scientist Frances Haugen, who urged the Australian government to work with other countries to better regulate social media.
The committee found that while social media algorithms — which collect users' data and recommend content based on their perceived preferences — are obviously vital to the companies, they can also cause enormous harm.
It heard evidence of recommended content leading to radicalisation or promoting eating disorders.
Ms Wicks said she was alarmed by the approach taken by some companies.
"There were some concerning observations that the committee did find, including that some of these social media and digital platforms may not have a high level of awareness about the full extent of online harm being caused," she said.
She said there is a desire to see much more transparency around how the companies use algorithms, including the possibility of requiring the social media giants to hand over some of their data.
The report found actually regulating how companies manage their complex algorithms would be enormously difficult but may become necessary.
Ms Wicks said fundamentally, they just want companies to take more of an interest in the safety of those on their platforms.
"At the heart of all of it is simply a principle of user safety and online safety being built in to the use of algorithms," she said.
"And calling out the need to better balance company profitability with user safety."
