CANBERRA, Jul 1 (NNN-AAP) – Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, accused social media companies of ignoring legitimate concerns about the impact of their platforms on children.
Albanese on Saturday said that, executives from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, showed how “arrogant” they are, by telling a parliamentary hearing on Friday that social media provides tremendous benefits for children.
“Meta are showing how out of touch they are and how arrogant they are,” Albanese told reporters.
“Every parent knows that social media can have a damaging impact on the mental health of young people, on social exclusion, on the bullying that can occur online, on grooming that can occur in a dangerous way online, as well.”
Antigone Davis, global head of safety at Meta, told the parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society on Friday that, there was no clear evidence linking social media to rising rates of mental illness.
Albanese told Seven Network television on Saturday that, Davis’s comments showed how contemptuous social media companies are of parents’ legitimate concerns.
The government has committed 6.5 million Australian dollars (4.3 million U.S. dollars) in funding, to trial age verification technology, to restrict children’s exposure to inappropriate content online.
In May, Albanese endorsed a campaign to raise the minimum age for registering social media accounts from 13 to 16.– NNN-AAP
