Social media platforms with ‘low risk of harm to children’ could escape Albanese government age ban

Labor’s changes to the proposed age ban law is aimed at social media platforms, not young people or parents, Michelle Rowland will say. Photograph: lakshmiprasad S/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Social media companies could escape the Albanese government’s proposed age ban if they can demonstrate a “low risk of harm to children”, the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, has said.

Rowland will announce on Friday that the “likely” amendments to the Online Safety Act banning children from social media will “place the onus on platforms, not parents or young people” to enforce the ban.