Wells willing to change digital harm proposal to win Coalition support - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Anika Wells says she is willing to change the digital harm proposal. (ABC News: Callum Flinn)

Communications Minister Anika Wells is open to changing draft laws that would allow her to designate what constitutes serious harm online.

The bill would require online platforms to reduce foreseeable harm or face fines of more than $100 million.

Labor will consult tech giants on the proposal and says it is open to working with the Greens and Coalition to finalise a position.

Communications Minister Anika Wells says she is willing to make a concession on draft ministerial powers under proposed digital duty of care laws in order to gain the support of the Coalition.

While the draft laws spell out online conduct that constitutes serious harm, the minister would have the power to designate additional serious harm that tech platforms must mitigate.

It is part of measures that aim to shift responsibility onto big tech to proactively reduce foreseeable harm or face fines of more than $100 million.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor branded the ministerial powers a "blank cheque for political censorship" and raised free speech concerns, stating on Thursday the Coalition would not support the bill in its current form.

Angus Taylor is concerned the ministerial powers could lead to political censorship. (ABC News)

Ms Wells said she was open to changing the draft legislation, including allowing parliament to decide what met the threshold instead.

"I'd be pleased to consider any constructive ways we can meet the intent around dealing with urgency around new and emerging serious harms," she told Insiders on Sunday morning.

Pressed whether that would include the ministerial powers, she said, "Yes."

"But like I said, I haven't had so much as a phone call or a word from the shadow minister with any suggestions," Ms Wells said.

Under the proposed new laws, tech giants would have an obligation to identify and minimise exposure to harm in an attempt to create a safer online environment.

These include child sexual exploitation content, grooming children for sexual activity, explicit threats of physical violence, encouraging self-harm, serious harassment or instructing criminal offences or illicit drug use.

Ms Wells said if the legislation had been in place in December when artificial-intelligence (AI) tool Grok started allowing users to "nudify" photos, including of children and teens, it would have allowed her and the eSafety commissioner to constitute that as a harm.

"We think this is a sensible measure to try and deal with these emerging harms that are coming online every single day," she said.

"And when it happens to your child and you're the parent, you want the government to act as swiftly as possible."

The bill includes a recommendation for an opt-in/opt-out system for platforms such as TikTok, Instagram or Facebook, requiring them to send account holders a push notification asking if they would like to see recommended content or a feed showing them only accounts that they follow.

While the proposed laws broadly have the Greens' support, the party has argued for tougher changes, including penalties tied to the direct percentage of a platform's global revenue.

Overnight, Anthropic chief executive officer Dario Amodei has called on AI firms to slow the technology's development.

"Not building the technology deprives humanity of benefits or simply places AI in the hands of authoritarian powers, while building it too fast is reckless. We have sought a middle way," Mr Amodei wrote in a post on his personal website.

"But over the last few months, I have become convinced that fully addressing the risks requires even more prudence."

OpenAI boss Sam Altman and Elon Musk, who owns xAI, this morning joined his calls for oversight.

Asked whether the government wanted to slow the pace, Ms Wells pointed back to the duty of care bill.

"We want to capture the benefits of AI, spread those, and keep Australians safe.

"The role I am playing here is trying to legislate a digital duty of care, where AI chatbots cannot harm our children and the platforms have to identify children and the platforms have to identify those risks and mitigate against them."