Coalition for Children's rights and protections in the age of AI
United Nations
New York
Colleagues,
Australia is an acknowledged first mover and world leader in digital safety.
Our journey to creating a safer digital world started in 2024 with the world’s first social media ban for children – now adopted by some 20 countries.
The driving force behind this reform were parents who channelled their grief at losing a child into a campaign to save other parents from their most traumatic experience. This included Emma Mason who spoke passionately of her beautiful daughter Tilly, at last year’s UN meeting.
Emma personified the human experience which motivated our child social media bans.
Australian parents have welcomed the empowerment this ban has brought.
The conversations they have had together confirm the common concerns they have about their children.
That social media is robbing them of their childhood, addicting them to algorithms.
Encouraging anxieties, eating disorders and other harms.
Our ban gives our children precious breathing space in which to mature and make safer social media decisions.
It gives parents the confidence of being able to say to their children – legally you cannot be on these platforms.
I want our children to be playing football or netball, making music or reading books, finding friends face to face.
Put simply, we must give children back their childhood.
The ban is making a difference.
And in the last fortnight we have strengthened it to force stricter compliance from social media platforms, with harsh penalties for a failure to enforce the rules.
Australia is now introducing additional laws – My Feed, My Way – to put choice back into the hands of Australians over the algorithm.
They will make social media platforms give people choice.
Choice over accepting algorithmic feeds and the ability to take proactive measures to remove harmful content from their platforms.
On Saturday, I stopped at Silicon Valley at the invitation of Apple’s Executive Chairman Tim Cook, to see how our laws inspired Apple’s new child safety controls.
Inspired by people like Emma and Tilly, all of this is making a real difference.
Artificial Intelligence is changing the world in which we live.
It is bringing enormous opportunities for our businesses and universities.
Bringing the promise of discovery through new scientific and medical advances.
Driving productivity and innovation.
That is why Australia is welcoming AI investment in our country. We see its potential to create opportunities and prosperity for our people.
But we also see that AI can pose a range of potential risks.
From the exploitation of children, the potential to enable biological weapons, or even the loss of control of AI systems themselves.
And as AI capabilities advance, these risks will increasingly cross borders.
And no country can manage these risks alone.
We must come together.
Together, we can seize and share and shape the opportunities this moment holds, in the interests of all our citizens.
We can help build common standards that protect our children and our communities.
We can develop clear shared expectations and common guardrails.
This week I was pleased to join with the Finnish President, the Norwegian PM and more than 20 leaders, to support control over frontier AI models.
And today I join with my fellow leaders here in the Coalition for Children’s rights and Protection in the Age of AI.
As leaders from our nations, UN agencies, civil society and the private sector we are here to demonstrate our commitment.
A commitment to deliver tangible outcomes on issues like safety and privacy by design and to fight against harms including AI-generated child sexual abuse material and deepfakes.
In this digital age, retaining sovereignty must have a digital dimension.
Which is why in July I announced that Australia will establish Australian Standards for AI.
Standards to ensure AI will work and deliver for people – not the other way around
To ensure our values are reflected and that technology retains its social licence.
To shape AI development, rather than be shaped by it.
Together, we can rise to meet these new challenges, now.
We can re-affirm our national sovereignty – and our shared humanity.
We can seize and share and shape the opportunities this moment holds, in the interests of all our citizens.
But we can only do it together.
We have the power, the agency and the choice to both embrace change and shape it.
Just as Australia has done with our digital safety agenda, we can do it with AI.