We can protect children online, but the digital wallet isn't the right approach

Additional legislation is required to close the many loopholes that will exist after this measure of online protection is put in place next year, write Alex Cooney and Eoghan Cleary

Social media companies have clearly shown they are more focused on their profit margins rather than the welfare and safety of the children using their services. Australia’s recent ban on social media has opened the conversation on how best to regulate these platforms.

So Australians under 16 have been banned from "the socials", or some of them anyway. The amendment to their legislation has already attracted plenty of criticism, while at the same time garnering widespread public support. Australia is to be applauded for leading the world in their aim to protect children online, but it is in the implementation that its effectiveness will be defined.

Enter stage left, our Government’s ongoing considerations of how best to protect children online here — the
planned introduction in 2026 of a national digital wallet, a Government-approved age verification tool. But again, how effective will it really be? And is the intention to make it optional or to enforce it?