Chalmers backs assault on big tech as Contos sounds alarm on manosphere

Treasurer Jim Chalmers backs a crackdown on social media algorithms serving “rubbish” to children, as consent advocate Chanel Contos urges the government to better protect young boys from being sucked into the online manosphere.

Chalmers became the latest cabinet minister to weigh in on the persistent dangers posed by harmful social media content on Wednesday, after Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek last weekend sounded the alarm on the prevalence of sexual choking in online pornography.

“I find it really disturbing the rubbish that is fed to our kids, and to our population more broadly, with these algorithms,” Chalmers said on Wednesday. “It’s self-evident that social media, and particularly the way these social media algorithms work, are not doing us a lot of good.”

Algorithms push content into users’ social media feeds based on their online activity and personal data. Advocates like Contos are calling for default feeds to be algorithm-free.

Labor is strengthening its attack on big tech after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese flagged online safety as a key platform for a third term , with cabinet considering mandating an algorithm opt-out function in its impending digital duty of care reforms.

Global momentum to regulate big tech is building after Australia’s teen social media ban, the European Union’s crackdown on algorithms, and Meta’s landmark $25 billion settlement in the United States that also extracted promises from the tech giant to limit its appeal to children.

But reform has proven difficult. Many Australian teens remain on social media, and in Europe, tech companies complied with an opt-out mandate, but disincentivised uptake by limiting other features, sparking a lawsuit in the Netherlands and an investigation by Ireland’s tech regulator.

Nationals leader Matt Canavan agreed online content was toxic, but blamed the “feminisation of our curriculum” for driving young boys towards it.

“They’re sick and tired of getting lectures about how bad men are at school, and so they go to other places,” Canavan told Nine’s Today .

“They’re sick and tired of the feminisation of our curriculum and the lack of direction and leadership that they’re given. Maybe we should look at getting more male teachers in,” he said, adding boys felt patronised, not cherished, at school.

Contos, who shot to national prominence in 2021 by documenting sexual violence in Sydney schools and successfully campaigned to mandate annual consent education in schools, said the consent curriculum was about promoting healthy intimacy.

“It is absolutely not an attack on men or boys at all.