Slave to the algorithm: Big tech in sexual violence spotlight
An advocate has renewed calls for the government to tackle social media algorithms after leaders met to discuss a spike in sexual violence against girls.
Australians must be allowed to opt-in to social media algorithms rather than opt-out, as tech companies will hide the option, a consent advocate says following a summit to address violence against women and girls.
Federal Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek and NSW Education Minister Prue Car convened Friday’s roundtable meeting in Sydney to address alarming incidents of alleged sexual violence and harrowing statistics regarding youth misogyny.
School bosses joined experts and politicians for the brainstorm, as the Women’s Safety Commissioner Hannah Tonkin said the nation needed urgent action.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.The group looked at how social media algorithms were increasingly contributing to sexual violence among young people, Ms Car said after the meeting in a joint statement with NSW Health Minister Ryan Park and Minister for Women Jodie Harrison.
They said algorithms pushed content with harmful attitudes towards gender, relationships and consent, with the federal government looking at ways this issue was legislated in other jurisdictions.
Ms Plibersek has previously said the government was exploring a plan to let Australians opt-out of social media algorithms - something already introduced in the European Union.
This would give people the option to just see posts from friends and accounts they follow, reverting social media platforms to their original models.
Chanel Contos, founder of Teach Us Consent, believes this plan doesn’t go far enough.
She said the government should instead force social media companies to give users an option to opt-in to algorithms.
“Opt-out means Big Tech can keep deciding what you see until you go looking for the setting to switch it off,” she told AAP.
“Opt-in means the default is a following-driven feed, and you have full control over whether you opt-in to a recommendation-driven feed.”
Ms Contos said the “opt-out” model had failed in the European Union, with tech companies making the setting hard to find and disincentivising use of the feature.
“We can’t repeat the same mistakes,” she said.
Boys aged between 16 and 18 were likely to be fed misogynistic content less than 25 minutes after signing up to social media, Ms Contos said during a speech at the National Press Club on Wednesday.
That was true even if preferences were set to try and exclude it, according to research from Teach Us Consent.
Expanding the reach of consent education in schools, strengthening support for victim-survivors of sexual violence and helping parents talk to their kids about healthy relationship were also identified as priorities in the meeting.
The discussion would help develop a NSW Sexual Violence Plan, due to be released in 2027, the three NSW ministers said.
The roundtable follows a spate of violent alleged sexual attacks perpetrated by Sydney’s youth.
Three schoolboys are accused of an hours-long pack rape of a southwest Sydney teenager.
Three teens from Sydney’s prestigious Scots College are also before the courts, alleged to have raped a 14-year-old girl in an alleyway.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
Lifeline 13 11 14
beyondblue 1300 22 4636
