Apple, the maker of Australia’s most popular phone, the iPhone, declined to comment on the policy announcement.
Apple and Google already feature extensive parental controls in their phone operating systems which, in line with Australian law, apply only to children under 13.
But, unlike Apple, Google actively encourages children to consider opting out of adult supervision the moment they turn 13, emailing them and their parents on their birthday to inform them they now have the option to “take charge” of their Google account, or have their parents manage their account “a little longer”.
If you can’t get your L Plates till you’re 16, then that might be the age for offering less parental control of phones, too.
— Matt Berriman
“Children over 13 … who had supervision added to their account can choose to stop supervision at any time,” Google points out on its website.
Matt Berriman, the chairman of Mental Health Australia, a peak body which lobbies for improvements to mental health policy, described Google’s rush to get kids to remove parental controls as profit-driven and “creepy”, and said that more needed to be done to protect children from the psychological harm done by technology companies.
“Thirteen is too young” to be handing control over mobile phones and tablets back to children, he said.
“We’re seeing self-harm increasing significantly in the 12- to 18-year-old target market, correlated to the increase in social media.
“We have evidence that social media companies and for-profit business will always put profit over people. Social media giants have shown this time and time again.
“We need regulated environments to protect our children and youth,” said Mr Berriman, who joined the board of Mental Health Australia after his company, Unlockd, was itself controversially forced out of business by Google.
“If you can’t get your L Plates till you’re 16, then that might be the age for offering less parental control of phones, too,” he said.
Reset Australia, a not-for-profit that lobbies for harm minimisation in the tech industry, said it welcomed the Coalition’s policy, too, but warned that enhancing parental controls on phones was no substitute for forcing social media to address the harm they do to youth.
“We should be wary of trillion-dollar companies placing the safety of their young users on the shoulders of parents,” said Reset Australia executive director Chris Cooper.
“Parents have enough to worry about without needing to also stress about whether YouTube, Instagram or TikTok are serving them harmful content. After all, it’s not only the parents here who have a duty of care.”
Samsung, too, welcomed the Coalition’s policy, adding it had already added a “Kids Mode” to its phones, on top of Google’s parental control features, that was easy to use and that could not be removed by children the moment they turned 13 because it could be locked to the parent’s fingerprints.
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, declined to comment, citing the caretaker conventions that prevent public comment on election issues.
