'Can't unsee it': Minns backs social media algorithm rules

NSW Premier Chris Minns has backed the increasing call for social media giants to address social media addiction driven by manipulated algotrithms.

Minns has said he would allow users to opt out of algorithms that suggest unwanted content, meaning that they would only see posts from accounts they have chosen to follow.

At an emergency meeting with school sectors today, Minns addressed concerns over a number of recent alleged sexual assaults by Sydney schoolboys.

One such incident involved the fatal “choking” of a 16-year-old girl as she had sex with her school-aged partner.

Guardian Australia reported last week that a source said the girl was believed to have become unconscious as a result of asphyxiation by her sexual partner.

Minns echoed the comments made by Social services minister Tanya Plibersek last week, who spoke out about the contribution of social media to the increase in sexual violence against teenagers, especially choking.

Minns also believes that there should be a ban on the depiction of strangulation in pornography, saying young people’s consumption of normalised violent sexual imagery was “the problem of our times."

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Tanya Plibersek (@tanyaplibersek)

Minns, who is in Mumbai on a four-day trade trip, added:

“I am worried, like a lot of people, that this graphic, violent imagery is being transmitted to young minds without any context or understanding what it means, often before they’ve got any kind of maturity to deal with the implications of seeing it,” he said.

“And once you’ve seen it, you can’t unsee it. So this is the problem of our times. Access to that kind of powerful technology in the hands of young people who lack the maturity to understand what it means. 

"If it’s possible to implement that ban, I think we should.”

Friday's roundtable meeting was called by Education Minister Prue Car, and was also attended by Plibersek.

Minns added, “I hear from young people all the time, ‘yep, love to stop the algorithm and start again’. They can’t do it. So yeah, I’d love that. 

“The social media companies will hate it, but stuff them.”