From CommsDay of 3 July 2026
Our Story of the Week is from today’s CommsDay. We try to cover a diversity of topics when we select the Story of the Week, including some that have long tails. Today’s story is one of those – the continuing public discussion and debate over the social media ban by under 16 year olds to listed social media sites in Australia. The arrangements were introduced in Australia from last December, and will be subject to a very full review after two years. The general media is not waiting two years, however, to cast judgment. Many media outlets have arrived at a very early conclusion that the scheme has failed, and that the arrangements in place are easily by-passed by children under 16, often with the acquiescence of their parents. There is no doubt that non-compliance is a problem, and is the reason why the Government has introduced legislation to increase penalties on the companies operating listed social media platforms. The current arrangements put responsibility for age assessment on the platform operators before they create accounts and grant access. There was a degree of bipartisan support for the need to take some action back in December, and that still exists. However, today’s story shows that the whole issue is at risk of being further weaponised in the political sphere as the legislation has been subject to a further two month Senate enquiry. Compare that to the Senate enquiry into the original bill, referred to in the last line of Grahame Lynch’s article.
Wells accuses Coalition and Greens of delaying social media ban enforcement bill
Communications minister Anika Wells has accused the Coalition and Greens of siding with big technology platforms after the Senate sent Labor’s latest social media minimum age enforcement bill to a two-month inquiry.
The Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026 was introduced this week to toughen Australia’s under-16 social media ban, which came into effect in December last year. It would give the eSafety Commissioner stronger powers to compel documents from platforms during investigations into systemic non-compliance, and double the maximum penalty for breaches from $49.5 million to $99 million.
But the bill will now be examined by the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, with a reporting date of 25 August 2026, after the Coalition and Greens backed a referral.
In Question Time on Wednesday, Wells said the bill contained “four pages of content” and had “two simple goals”: to empower the online safety regulator to compel documents from big technology companies and to double the fine for non-compliance. “That’s it. Two changes to strengthen a bipartisan law designed to protect young Australians from the harms of social media,” Wells told the House of Representatives.
She accused Opposition leader Angus Taylor and the Coalition of breaking bipartisanship and “siding with social media platforms over Australian parents”.
“Last night, the Coalition sold out Australian kids to some of the richest, most powerful companies in the world,” Wells said, arguing the inquiry would give platforms “at least two more months” to prepare legal strategies, dispose of documents and continue doing “the bare minimum” to follow Australian law.
The minister said the referral was particularly stark given the government’s argument that the bill was a limited enforcement measure rather than a broader rewrite of the policy.
“They did a deal with the Greens Political Party to send a four-page bill with two simple goals to a two-month Senate inquiry,” Wells said.
Wells also quoted Wayne Holdsworth, the Victorian father of Mac Holdsworth, who died by suicide after being targeted through social media sexual extortion.
Holdsworth was in Parliament House earlier in the week as the government pressed for swift passage of the bill.
“As every day goes by that we don’t up the ante on tech giants acting irresponsibly, innocent kids are targeted by sex extortionists,” Wells said, quoting Holdsworth’s response to the Senate referral.
The Coalition rejected the government’s attack, saying Labor had tried to shut down scrutiny of both the online safety bill and a separate gambling reform bill.
Shadow communications minister Sarah Henderson defended the inquiry, saying eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant had “belled the cat” in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald when she said she did not have all the tools needed to implement the social media ban.
Henderson said the opposition was still waiting for answers to questions on notice about the deficiencies in the regime, and argued that “proper scrutiny” was needed so parents were given “every possible solution”.
Asked about warnings that the two-month delay could give platforms time to destroy evidence, Henderson dismissed the claim, saying the government had already put technology companies on notice by announcing the bill.
“I don’t think there’s a shredder in Google or Yahoo or any other major company. They’re all digital documents,” she said.
Henderson said the government had “had two years to fix this” but had passed laws that were “deficient” and “failing Australian parents and their children”.
She said the inquiry should also examine workarounds such as virtual private networks, as well as algorithms and device-level safety tools controlled by Google, Apple and Microsoft. “These algorithms are highly addictive. They are fueling terrible addiction, mental
health harm,” Henderson said, adding that parents needed more choice and control over harmful material before it reached children’s phones.
The political clash comes as the government seeks to tighten enforcement of the minimum age regime amid concern that major platforms are not taking sufficient steps to remove underage users or prevent new accounts from being created.
A Senate inquiry into the original bill that introduced the social media minimum age regime ran for a week.
Grahame Lynch
IN TODAY’S COMMSDAY (Friday 3 July 2026)
The Northern Territory is emerging as a data centre flashpoint, with the government actively engaging with 12 companies on major projects as details surface of Energy North’s $11.9 billion Project Ares, a hyperscale AI campus at Murranji Station that has been granted Commonwealth Major Project Status.
The federal government has rejected suggestions that Telstra should have to provide power for all voice services it delivers under the Universal Service Obligation, but new regulation requires the telco to provide advance notice to consumers on power issues.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority says it expects rail mobile radio operators in the 1.9GHz band and mobile network operators to work together to avoid interference with 2GHz base stations, but has also set out a fallback path where negotiations fail.
Subsea cable security and support for telcos to block cyber threats at speed and scale are two of the key priorities under Horizon 2 of the national cyber security strategy, an industry briefing has heard.
The Albanese government has launched what it says are the biggest defence capability reforms in 50 years, combining a new Defence Delivery Agency with a refreshed Defence Industry Development Strategy that gives more granular direction to industry on space, cyber, communications, radiofrequency and sensor-related priorities.
Communications minister Anika Wells has accused the Coalition and Greens of siding with big technology platforms after the Senate sent Labor’s latest social media minimum age enforcement bill to a two-month inquiry.
Regional communities recognise that data centres are critical national infrastructure supporting essential services. However deputy chair of the Regional Development Australia Sydney Kylie Hargreaves said yesterday that their arrival in regional areas bring unique and often overlooked challenges requiring “deliberate policy settings.”
2degrees has welcomed the decision to allocate 30MHz of 2600MHz spectrum to the company as part of efforts to rebalance the spectrum holdings of New Zealand’s three mobile operators.
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