Patanjali Civil Services Academy

Australia: Social Media Algorithm Controls

Tags: Prelims Current events of national and international importance

Source: The Indian Express

Context: Australia is proposing Digital Duty of Care rules to give users greater control over algorithmic feeds and strengthen protection of children from harmful online content.
User empowerment tools: Platforms would have to let users 16+ choose whether to receive algorithmically recommended content, including an option to opt out.
Digital Duty of Care: Places a legal responsibility on platforms to take reasonable measures against online harms.
Penalty: Non-compliant platforms could face fines of up to A$78.6 million.
Child safety: Proposed safeguards target content promoting eating disorders, misogyny, pornography, crime and dangerous stunts.
Existing restriction: Since December 2025, Australia has prohibited under-16s from holding accounts on major social-media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
Algorithmic curation: Recommendation algorithms select content based on factors such as past user interactions and predicted interests.
Key concern: Algorithmic curation can cause filter bubbles and amplify harmful content.
Digital Duty of Care: Represents a shift from largely voluntary content moderation towards legally enforceable platform responsibility for user safety.
Core distinction: Australia’s approach addresses both access (who can use social media) and exposure (what content algorithms show users).

Q1. With reference to Australia's proposed Digital Duty of Care framework, consider the following statements:

The proposed framework seeks to regulate not only access to social-media platforms but also users' exposure to algorithmically curated content.
Under the proposed framework, users aged 16 years and above would have the option to opt out of algorithmically recommended content.
Australia's existing under-16 social-media restriction primarily regulates the nature of content recommended to children rather than their ability to hold social-media accounts.
The Digital Duty of Care represents a shift towards placing a legally enforceable responsibility on platforms to take reasonable measures against online harms.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

A. 1 only
B. 2 only
C. 2 and 3 only
D. 1, 2 and 4 only

Answer: D

Explanation:

1 is correct: Australia's approach addresses both access and exposure.
2 is correct: Users 16+ would be given greater control, including the option to opt out of algorithmic recommendations.
3 is incorrect: The existing restriction concerns access—under-16s are prohibited from holding accounts on major social-media platforms.
4 is correct: Digital Duty of Care moves towards legally enforceable platform responsibility, rather than relying primarily on voluntary moderation.