Zoe Daniel urges enforceable digital duty of care for major platforms
The opinion writer says age restrictions and algorithm opt-outs leave too much responsibility with users and do not address harmful platform design.
Zoe Daniel has called for Australia to introduce a mandatory, enforceable digital duty of care requiring major technology platforms to assess and mitigate risks arising from their systems, processes and design.
Writing in The Guardian Opinion, Daniel argued that age restrictions and algorithm opt-outs were insufficient because they placed the responsibility for online safety largely on consumers. She said regulation should address how platforms operate, rather than focus mainly on removing individual pieces of content.
Daniel linked her proposal to concerns about addictive design, online misogyny, sexual violence, the normalisation of pornography, mental health harms, misinformation and social division. These claims were presented as part of her commentary and were not independently assessed in the supplied material.
She said a private members’ digital duty of care bill she tabled in federal parliament in 2024 included platform risk assessments, evidence of mitigation, access for independent researchers and stronger default privacy settings. It also proposed allowing users to reset or opt out of algorithmic systems.
The bill included penalties of up to 10 per cent of global turnover for non-compliance, according to Daniel. She also called for updated privacy laws and greater transparency about how platforms’ algorithms operate.
Sexual consent advocate Chanel Contos reportedly made a related criticism in a speech at the National Press Club in Canberra on Thursday, saying reforms could appear structural while leaving responsibility with users. The supplied material does not establish the current status, detailed wording or parliamentary prospects of Daniel’s bill.
