ABC Adelaide with Jo Laverty - 8 December 2025

Melissa McIntosh MP 
Shadow Minister for Communications 
Shadow Minister for Women 
Federal Member for Lindsay 

Transcript

ABC Adelaide with Jo Laverty

08 December 2025

Topics: Social media ban

E&EO … 

Jo Laverty: Now it is four to four, but we do want to talk quickly about the under 16 social media ban. Will it work in two days’ time? It's due to come in. Melissa McIntosh is Shadow Communications Minister. Melissa McIntosh, in principle, is the social media ban still a good idea or are you backing away from that?

Melissa McIntosh: Not at all backing away from the intent of protecting kids under 16 online. And we actually had the policy first and foremost before the election. It's more when you feel like the there's a weakness in the execution, that the government isn't doing enough to ensure its success. That's when you have questions and that's what I've been trying to prosecute over a number of months now when it comes to platforms being dripped in, you know, now we're hearing that people will be compelled to use digital ID. These types of issues are what we're hitting hard on.

Jo Laverty: Now on the digital ID, that has been a point of contention because the way that it's been put forward is there'll be a range of different ways that you can prove your identity, not necessarily that you'll have to use a digital ID.

Melissa McIntosh: Well, I think the Minister for Communications and the Prime Minister are being a bit tricky in their language here. The age verification technology is the first sort of point of call, but there is a high error rate. This is new technology, and I've met with the platforms on this and they've said they don't want to risk the $50 million fines that will be coming. They will ask people who can't verify their age, they will ask people to produce their driver's license or their birth certify. And the concern here, first and foremost is that data has been collected by a third-party company, and it's stored in a data centre offshore and no one can say how long that data is going to be stored for. And this is very private information, birth certificates and driver's licence.

Jo Laverty: Melissa McIntosh, we'll leave it there. Appreciate your time this afternoon. Thank you. The Shadow Federal Communications Minister.