Monash University Media Release
Monash University experts comment on prime minister Anthony Albanese’s announcement of new legislation to give Australians greater control over social media algorithms, and how this would protect against misogynistic content, the technical implications of opt-in versus opt-out settings, and extending safeguards to emerging AI harms.
Professor Rashina Hoda, Department of Software Systems and Cybersecurity, Faculty of Information Technology says:
“The Digital Duty of Care is a great and much needed initiative that is long overdue. For years social media companies have controlled what users see on their feeds. It’s about time we had some control back on our social media feeds and online experience in general.
“Different platforms have different recommender systems and they can cause harm, especially for vulnerable populations, by reinforcing negative beliefs, ‘hooking’ people into doom scrolling and creating echo chambers.
“By bringing intentionality back into how we engage with social media, we can regain control on what we consume and also how long we engage, and thereby, how much more time we can have in our lives for other activities. However, the bill needs to be accompanied by awareness campaigns, training and education for users of all ages.
“The PM’s announcement refers to both opting in and opting out of algorithms. These are vastly different control settings. With the opt-out option users will have the default recommender system running as it is and will have to make a conscious choice to opt-out of it. The ‘opt-in’ is a higher control setting where no recommender system decides the feeds by default. Inertia means people tend to continue with default settings, so some education will be in order.
“More control on how and what we view is particularly important in the age of AI where artificially generated content and hyper personalised and often manipulative advertisements are starting to flood users’ feeds. It is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between real and fake content generated by AI.
“I am happy to see the PM’s announcement makes mention of online games, apps and AI chatbots. While under 18s may be at particular risk and should be protected, I think this should extend to all users.
“As an example, people with mental health conditions are known to reach out to AI chatbots for quasi-therapy purposes with some very drastic outcomes. And our latest research into how the general public and clinicians are engaging with AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Claude shows some level of dependence on these systems for healthcare information and advice that may be problematic in light of known AI errors, hallucinations and AI sycophancy.”
“The new legislation seems to be a good first step in the right direction. I hope through this and more safeguards we are able to address more current and emerging AI harms.”
Read more of Professor Hoda’s commentary.
Professor Steven Roberts, School of Social Sciences, Monash University Faculty of Arts says:
“Giving Australians a genuine opt-out matters because recommendation algorithms are not neutral. They are designed to hold our attention, and too often that means privileging provocative and extreme content because outrage drives engagement and engagement drives profit. When these systems lead young people from seemingly harmless material towards misogynistic content, their choices are being shaped by a commercial business model. An opt-out would return some control to users and disrupt that pathway without censoring content.
“We can already see the consequences in Australian schools. Our national survey of more than 2,600 teachers found that misogyny is rife in schools, and that 70 per cent had frequently or occasionally seen the impact of manosphere social media influencers present on student attitudes and behaviour. A Digital Duty of Care rightly places responsibility on the companies that design and profit from these systems. But regulation is only one part of the answer: the manosphere takes misogyny already baked into our culture and amplifies it at extraordinary speed and scale, so broader education, prevention and cultural change remain essential.”
Read more of Steven Roberts’ commentary
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I’d prefer an opt-in, but opt-out is acceptable provided the process is easy to navigate.
@ Leefe – my thoughts exactly.
I have some time ago opted-out. I don’t use Google, Meta, or Microsoft products, and don’t click on AI-based searches. It’s a couple of days easy work. And well worth it.