You set up a digital profile, and within minutes, the feed starts feeding you junk. Platforms know what hooks you. Unfortunately, the hook is often wrapped in toxic sludge.
Australia is now looking at radical changes to fix this mess. The federal government is seriously weighing whether to make social media recommender algorithms entirely optional for users. At the same time, officials are eyeing international blueprints like the United Kingdom's ban on pornography depicting strangulation.
Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek recently laid out the stark reality on national television. New accounts created by young boys are bombarded with violent misogynistic material within an average of twenty-three minutes. That speed isn't an accident. It's the product of engineered code designed to maximize engagement at any cost.
The Cost of Algorithmic Feed Control
For years, tech giants hid behind the excuse of neutrality. They argued that algorithms merely reflect human curiosity.
Evidence tells a completely different story. Platforms actively push extreme and harmful narratives because outrage drives clicks. When algorithms reward shock value, teenagers absorb toxic behavior as normal.
The consequences are fatal. Studies and statistics show a dramatic surge in young people reporting non-consensual strangulation during sexual encounters. A staggering sixty percent of youth now encounter or experience this dangerous practice. It spreads rapidly because algorithms and unmoderated explicit content normalize it.
Advocacy groups like Chanel Contos’s Teach Us Consent have pushed hard for systemic overhauls. Giving everyday people the power to turn off algorithmic feeds entirely could starve toxic content of its oxygen. If users can default to chronological feeds without automated manipulation, the incentives for outrage break down.
Following the UK Lead on Explicit Content
Beyond feed design, Canberra is looking overseas for harsher controls on extreme media. The United Kingdom enacted strict bans targeting the depiction of strangulation and suffocation in pornography.
Lawmakers in Australia see those measures as a crucial baseline. Domestic incidents involving teenage tragedies have forced a national reckoning. When dangerous physical acts are packaged as mainstream entertainment online, real-world harm follows swiftly.
Legislation is already shifting. Australia implemented restrictions blocking under-sixteens from major social networks. Privacy reforms and incoming digital duty of care bills aim to shift the legal burden onto major technology companies. Instead of users policing themselves, tech executives face actual accountability for the safety of their software.
What Comes Next for Tech Regulation
Big tech will fight these changes tooth and nail. Lobbyists always argue that user choice and safety mandates destroy innovation.
Innovation that ruins lives isn't worth protecting.
If you care about digital safety, pay attention to upcoming parliamentary consultations. Expect companies to push back with cosmetic adjustments instead of real structural fixes. Demand transparent controls over what gets fed to your screens.
