Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on September 20 (local time) that he is seeking the cooperation of major technology corporations on regulations to protect children in the online environment and strengthen artificial intelligence (AI) management.
The statement was made after a meeting between the Australian Prime Minister and former Apple CEO Tim Cook in California, USA. According to Mr. Albanese, the country is building stricter regulations to ensure the safety of people online and large technology corporations such as Apple are also actively participating in this effort.
In a post on the X platform, Mr. Tim Cook also said he had shared with Prime Minister Albanese about new control tools "strong and intuitive to help keep children safe online".
In 2025, Australia applied a regulation prohibiting people under 16 years old from using social media platforms. This is part of measures to protect children from online bullying and potentially harmful algorithms.
The new draft law announced this month will require companies operating popular platforms such as Facebook, TikTok and Instagram to fulfill "safety obligations" to users. The draft also allows users to turn off content suggestion algorithms if they want to.
However, data released last month showed that the level of social networking applications used by people under 16 years old in Australia is still increasing despite the ban.
The draft law is expected to be submitted to the Australian Parliament this year, after consulting social media companies, industry organizations and civil society groups.
During a visit to the United States to attend the United Nations General Assembly session, Prime Minister Albanese also called for strengthening AI management and said Australia will issue new standards for this technology by the end of this year.
Answering US media, Mr. Albanese warned that AI may develop in a direction beyond human control; the challenge is to ensure that humans play a role in controlling technology, instead of letting technology dominate humans.
