Consent advocate urges Australian government to mandate opt-in for social media algorithms

Consent advocate Chanel Contos is urging the federal government to pursue an opt-in for algorithmic social media feeds, as it will be "too easy" for tech giants to design their way around weaker reforms.

Ms Contos will make the case for reining in harmful algorithms, which she says are exposing young people to misogynistic manosphere content and fuelling the prevalence of sexual violence in Australia, during a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has backed giving Australians more control over the content they are served online but has stopped short of backing the algorithm opt-in model proposed by Ms Contos.

"In response to community concern about the impact of algorithms, we are considering options to ensure people have greater control over what they receive on their devices," Mr Albanese said.

In an excerpt of her speech, seen by the ABC, Ms Contos will argue an opt-out system for algorithms would be a "first step" and congratulate the government for seeking to address the issue.

"However, opt-in algorithms would fundamentally make the transition onto social media for 16-year-olds and other children safer, and it would bring the principle of affirmative consent to our screens," she will say.

"This is crucial, and the detail in any reform will determine its success."

Algorithms are the automated systems used by social media platforms to decide which posts, videos and other content a user sees and in what order, based on factors such as their behaviour and apparent interests.

Ms Contos, who is the founder and chief executive of advocacy group Teach Us Consent, launched the "fix our feeds" campaign calling for the government to mandate an "opt-in" for algorithms in December last year.

Labor has since indicated an interest in addressing the broader issue to further complement its laws banning Australians aged under 16 from holding any social media account.

Communications Minister Anika Wells said "deliberately opaque" algorithmic recommender systems had allowed social media companies to influence Australian culture "for better or worse".

"Online harm has real-world consequences," she said.

"If we want to prevent harm, we must fix platforms that reward it."

Digital duty of care next on Labor's agenda

Ms Wells has been developing a Digital Duty of Care, which would be a legal obligation on online platforms to proactively identify and reduce foreseeable risks of harm to their users.

It reverses the current situation that relies mainly on users reporting harmful content after something has gone wrong.

An exposure draft of the legislation is due to be released later this month, with Ms Contos describing the "overall strength" of those reforms as "critical" to their success.

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"It is too easy for big tech to design schemes that appear as structural reform but actually suit them just fine," she will say at the National Press Club.

In her speech, Ms Contos will link algorithm-driven harm to the "uphill battle" schools are facing in their attempts to teach consent to young students.

Ms Contos will say a yearly class had "little hope" of changing the attitudes responsible for the current culture of sexual violence in schools while an "addictive content producing machine" simultaneously targeted teens with a "contradictory message".

How algorithms fuel the manosphere

She will outline how manosphere is not simply a broad term describing online communities that hold male supremacy ideologies, but a money-making venture facilitated by algorithms.

Ms Contos will say young men online seeking community, belonging or self-improvement advice were "targeted" with content that blamed women for their "misfortune".

This content also reinstates "harmful and outdated" gender roles, like the idea women should not leave the house without their male partner, hold jobs or earn their own money.

"Boys and men have valid concerns about the economy, and their relationships with partners and friends," she will say.

"From these concerns, an industry has jumped onto a market opportunity, and unfortunately, misogyny is at the heart of its business model."

Ms Contos will describe how young men engaging in "harmless" workout or motivational videos are "very quickly" served content promoting the idea that emotional control, material wealth and dominance "especially over women" are "markers of male wealth".

She will point to research that men who subscribe to those sorts of beliefs are twice as likely to binge-drink, six times as likely to problem gamble and eight times as likely to have suicidal thoughts.

They are also 17 times more likely to have hit their partner, according to the Man Box study.