Former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard has called for far tougher regulation of social media platforms, arguing that the nation’s world-first ban on under-16s accessing social media is only “a start” and falls short of what is needed to protect young people and society at large.
Speaking to several hundred attendees at Cambridge University’s Wolfson College during the Lee Lecture: Reflection & Renewal, Gillard said she remains “a firm believer in social media regulation” and urged governments worldwide to adopt a far more assertive stance.
Gillard, who served as Australia’s 27th prime minister from 2010 to 2013 and now chairs the global charitable foundation Wellcome Trust, highlighted the escalating harms linked to online platforms—from extremist content to self-harm imagery—and said governments must regulate algorithms with the same seriousness applied to traditional media.
“You know, in my nation, the government has banned social media for teenagers under 16,” she said. “I think that’s a start, but it’s nowhere near enough.”
She dismissed as “a stupid argument” the long-running debate about whether social media companies are publishers or neutral platforms, saying the distinction has become meaningless in the face of the real-world damage caused by unregulated content.
“If we all lived next to a bookstore full of books on how to starve yourself to death, how to be a misogynist, how to build a bomb, we would all be outside campaigning to shut it down,” she told the crowd. “Governments need to be forward-leaning on regulation. They must force platforms to change their algorithms so this content simply cannot be promoted.”
The new Australian laws—shaped in part by the Herald Sun’s Let Them Be Kids campaign—come into effect on December 10, requiring platforms to take “reasonable steps” to stop under-16s creating accounts and to deactivate any existing accounts held by younger children. The measures will make Australia the first nation to impose such restrictions at a national level.
Gillard also used her address to criticise the rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in the United States under President Donald Trump. She argued that his efforts have emboldened institutions globally to retreat from DEI commitments.
“We must resist this rollback,” she said. “And in the UK, we must be particularly vigilant toward organisations quietly walking away from their own diversity and inclusion work. We also need to reflect on how to do better and confront where campaigning has gone wrong.”
Her remarks come as other countries, including Denmark, examine similar restrictions for young social media users, citing Australia’s policy as a model.
