A hot potato: Young people in Australia could soon face another restriction in the name of keeping them safe. Google has warned that the country’s proposed Digital Duty of Care legislation could force it to block under-18s from Gmail. Having already banned under-16s from social media, Australia’s push to make the internet safer for children could now affect something as ordinary as checking their email.
According to Reuters, YouTube’s Australia and New Zealand policy head Rachel Lord raised the concern at a Senate hearing on November 9. She said provisions requiring age checks where children risk encountering pornography could affect email, messaging, and private file storage.
“We are talking about potentially intrusive monitoring within private communications or file storage,” Lord said.
The bill has passed the House of Representatives but still needs cross-party backing in the Senate. Google’s warning concerns what complying with the rule could require.
Unsurprisingly, Google wasn’t the only company objecting to the proposal. Meta, TikTok, and Snap warned that giving regulators this type of broad discretion over harmful content could encourage platforms to remove too much material to avoid penalties.
The government’s description of the legislation puts those penalties at up to AU$109.2 million ($75.40 million). Introduced on October 15, the law would require providers to take reasonable steps to keep Australians safe, with additional protections for under-18s.
The proposal also includes tools allowing users to choose whether algorithmically recommended content appears in their feeds. It would give the eSafety commissioner powers to issue removal notices for nudify apps and websites, shorten required responses to cyberbullying and abuse complaints to 24 hours, and set minimum standards for platform complaint processes.
Australia is already fighting over its existing restrictions for teens. It was reported last week that Reddit is challenging the country’s under-16 social media ban, calling it “ill thought out” and “inept” while arguing that Reddit isn’t a social media platform.
That social media ban for kids took effect on December 10, 2025, making Australia the first country in the world to introduce such a restriction. Reddit says it restricts political expression and argues that its lack of reliance on friend networks differentiates it from platforms such as Facebook.
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