All smartphones sold in Australia will soon need to have parental controls built in, under new recommendations being considered by the federal government.
In addition, social media companies would need to change the default privacy settings for accounts held by children, in a bid to protect the privacy of young people online.
This comes as a new report from the government’s social media and online safety committee outlines ways in which children can be better protected online.
“Social media platforms have had the chance to be able to do this in an optional way for a long time now,” committee chair, Liberal MP Lucy Wicks 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.
“We need to make sure that their world is safe, not just in the real world, but in the online world and that’s why we’ve actually recommended that it does become something mandatory.”
Wicks says that smartphone parental controls need to be mandated in Australia.
“I think you can always aim for improvements,” she said.
“We heard some really good evidence about what is out there and the options that are already available, technologically speaking. So it’s absolutely possible.”
