Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells is seeking allies among other governments to pressure technology companies, including Meta $META Platforms, over child safety, she told Bloomberg.
Wells has spoken with officials in Malaysia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom, among other countries, according to Bloomberg. Talks with additional governments have been scheduled for the next few weeks, she said.
Wells wants Australia's new Digital Duty of Care legislation to serve as a model for shared minimum protections online, with a special focus on children, she told Bloomberg. "These are the most resourced, powerful companies in the world," she said. "It's going to take a coalition of lawmakers working together across the globe to take them on."
The government introduced the Online Safety Amendment (Digital Duty of Care) Bill 2026 in Parliament last week, according to the minister's office. The bill would set minimum safety standards for online services such as games, apps and AI chatbots. It would require platforms to protect users under 18 from harmful material, conduct and features.
Social media users over 16 would be able to choose whether to see recommended content or only the pages and people they follow. The bill would let the eSafety Commissioner remove nudify apps and websites, and it would cut the required response time for cyberbullying and abuse complaints from 48 hours to 24. Breaches would carry penalties of up to A$109.2 million.
"It will set basic safety standards for the digital services we use every day, just as we have for food, cars and kids' toys," Wells said in a statement.
Wells wants Parliament to approve the bill before the year is out, and the law would then come into force a year after that, according to Bloomberg. Labor needs the Greens' backing to win Senate passage for the bill, according to Manila Times. Opposition conservatives have pledged to "fight it every step of the way," arguing that the legislation hands the government excessive control over speech.
Wells said she will weigh Greens requests to link fines to a share of global revenue and to allow people harmed online to take technology firms to court for damages, according to Bloomberg. The Trump administration has criticized the plan, saying it risks spreading overseas, according to Bloomberg.
Wells also told Bloomberg she anticipates that legal action over alleged non-compliance with Australia's under-16 social media ban will go forward against Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube.
Other governments are also pressing the companies. Meta and Roblox $RBLX agreed to strengthen child safety protections in the Philippines, including age verification, parental controls and faster takedowns of harmful content.
Meta also agreed to settle allegations from 29 U.S. states that Facebook and Instagram were designed to be addictive to children. The settlement requires daily time caps and overnight restrictions for teen users. Meta denied wrongdoing.
Wells told Bloomberg that globally agreed standards would be a better outcome than settlements negotiated in individual jurisdictions.