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Australia’s Communications Minister Anika Wells introduced a Digital Duty of Care bill on 15 October 2026, arguing that technology companies—not children or their parents—must carry the main responsibility for reducing foreseeable online harms. The proposal would let users turn off recommendation algorithms, require platforms to remove personalised feeds and endless scrolling for under-16s, and impose broader protections for everyone under 18. It builds on Australia’s existing minimum-age rules for social media, but its final service list, enforcement details and start date are not yet settled.
What Australia’s Digital Duty of Care would change
The bill would create a legal duty for covered online services to provide a safer environment and to examine whether their systems, tools and features create risks. AFP reported that major services including Facebook, TikTok and Instagram would have to give users a choice between an algorithmically recommended feed and a feed containing only posts from accounts they follow.
For users under 16, the proposal goes further: personalised recommendation systems would have to be switched off, and platforms would have to disable endless scrolling. The policy is aimed at product design and ranking systems, rather than only at individual posts that break existing rules.
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The minister’s speech says providers would have to protect under-18s from pornography, bullying and abuse, promotion of eating disorders, dangerous-stunt or crime glorification, misogyny and hostile ideas about women and gender equality. The stated threshold includes material capable of causing serious distress or other serious harm. The draft’s exact definitions and the complete list of covered services remain unresolved.
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How the proposal relates to the under-16 social-media law
Australia already has a minimum-age regime for social-media use. The ABC’s explainer says it applies to Australian users younger than 16 and places the compliance burden on platforms, which must take reasonable steps to prevent under-age access. Children and parents are not fined under that regime; Australia’s eSafety regulator is responsible for enforcement.
| Issue | Existing minimum-age regime | Proposed Digital Duty of Care |
|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Preventing under-16 access to covered social-media services | Making providers assess and reduce harms created by systems, features and content |
| Who bears the compliance duty | Platforms, through reasonable age-related steps | Platforms and other covered providers, with duties extending to product design |
| Effect on under-16 users | Access restrictions under the minimum-age framework | No personalised recommendations and no endless scrolling |
| Effect on under-18 users | Not established by the minimum-age rule alone | Protection from specified serious harms, including pornography, bullying and eating-disorder promotion |
| Parents and children | Not punished under the ABC-described regime | The proposal is framed as a provider duty, not a new offence for families |
| Regulator | eSafety enforcement | The bill’s final allocation of powers and remedies is still to be determined |
What “unfettered access” means in the government’s argument
Wells used the phrase to describe a period in which large technology companies could deploy engagement-driven products to children without a specific legal obligation to test and control the risks created by those products. “The problem today, is that Big Tech has been allowed to live-test its products on Australians,” she said. Her central formulation was: “if you build it, you are responsible for its risks.”
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the policy as “putting choice back into the hands of Australians online.” In practical terms, that choice would include declining a ranked feed in favour of a chronological or follow-only feed. For children, the proposal would remove two design features—personalised ranking and continuous scroll—that can increase the amount of recommended material shown without a deliberate choice to seek it.
Who would be responsible: parents, children or platforms?
The government’s position is that the provider should bear the operational burden. A company would need to assess how its recommendation, messaging, search, autoplay or other features can expose minors to serious harm and then apply safeguards. The under-16 regime similarly places compliance obligations on services rather than punishing a child or parent.
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That does not mean families would lose all responsibility for supervision. It means a parent’s monitoring would not be the legal substitute for platform controls. The bill’s final text will determine what counts as a reasonable provider response, how age is established, and what happens when a service fails.
What evidence the government cites
In her 2026 speech, Wells reported several early results associated with the minimum-age policy:
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- More than 5 million under-age accounts had been deactivated, removed or restricted.
- An eSafety first survey found a 20% reduction in under-16 account holders three months after the law began.
- A YouGov survey found 30% of Australians aged 13–15 said they were spending more time playing sport.
- The same survey found 27% reported better sleep.
- A reported survey result showed online bullying down 9%.
- Exposure to inappropriate and violent content was reported as down 18%.
These figures are claims presented in a government speech. The available material does not provide the underlying survey methodology or an independent audit, so they should not be treated as a definitive causal evaluation of the law. They also do not establish whether the proposed algorithm controls would produce the same effects.
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Why the bill is politically contested
The opposition argues that the proposal could give the communications minister excessive discretion over speech and online services. Shadow communications minister Sarah Henderson said it gives the minister “unfettered powers to make regulations into anything that she considers to be either seriously harmful or harmful to children.”
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The dispute therefore concerns both child safety and the boundary between delegated regulation and parliamentary lawmaking. Key questions include how “seriously harmful” will be defined, what evidence a provider must consider, whether exemptions will apply to particular services, and how appeals or judicial review would work.
Questions that will decide whether the policy works
Can age assurance protect privacy?
Platforms need a way to distinguish under-16 and under-18 users for the relevant controls, but the material available does not establish the bill’s approved age-assurance methods. Any system that collects identity documents, biometric signals or behavioural data would raise separate privacy and security questions. The enacted text and regulator guidance will need to specify what information may be collected, how long it may be retained and whether users can challenge an incorrect age decision.
Will algorithm opt-out reduce harmful exposure?
A follow-only feed can reduce recommendation-driven discovery, but it cannot by itself remove harmful material posted by an account a user follows or reached through search, links and private messages. The bill’s effectiveness will depend on how “personalised” is defined, whether other ranking systems are covered and how quickly providers respond to abuse.
What enforcement and penalties will apply?
The sources available for this report do not establish final fines, investigation powers, commencement dates or the exact division of authority between the minister and eSafety. Those details will determine whether the duty is a measurable safety requirement or a broad standard enforced case by case.
What happens next
The bill must proceed through Parliament, including the Senate, before it can become law. Its final covered-service list, commencement date, age-assurance rules, enforcement provisions and definitions of harmful content are open questions. Until an enacted text, a regulator notice or published methodology is available, the reported account and wellbeing figures should be read as preliminary government-reported indicators rather than independently validated outcomes.
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