Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories - Shadow Minister for Regional Communications - Transcript - Interview Radio BBC4 - 10 December 2025

DR ANNE WEBSTER MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TERRITORIES

SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MALLEE

TRANSCRIPT

(pre-recorded interview aired 7:50am Wednesday 10 December 2025 London time)

TOPICS: Australian social media ban, age verification, Roblox, child protection, gambling laws, enforcement challenges

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PRESENTER

The Australians have done it. They have banned social media for the under 16s. Well, not completely, but they are giving it a go. The ban starts today, and the rest of the world worried about what we have been doing to our kids, watches and waits to see what will come of it. Dr Anne Webster is an Australian MP for the opposition National Party, and a supporter of the ban.

WEBSTER

In an ideal world, children would be allowed to be children. The damage that is being done as we hear research piece after research piece for young people who find themselves bullied online, who are victims of those who prey on them as youngsters, just has to be managed. And the fact is, we've lost too many lives.

PRESENTER

How confident are you it'll work?

WEBSTER

I don't have a huge amount of confidence at this point in time. I hope it will work. I really do. And I know this is very divided. There are some parents who think that their children should be able to do whatever. But the reality is that we have laws in place, both in Britain, certainly in Australia, that prohibit children from engaging in gambling or pornography like we try and protect them.

PRESENTER

The issue I suppose, for those like you who support this legislation is potentially there are too many loopholes out there. And you think of some of the gaming sites - Roblox is one of them - that are still going to exist and that children can still be on.

WEBSTER

Yeah, absolutely, I believe, if I read the reports right, that Roblox are looking at separating out through age verification of some means or other, to separate so younger kids can not be prey to those who are older. But I think that actually raises the question about age verification. How do you verify someone's age? It's still not at a point where you had confidence of five years older or five years younger, that's a very big window. So one of my own staff has a 15 year old son, and he was told to get off the social media platform and asked to reapply. He reapplied the age verification system within that particular platform deemed that he was 20. I mean, that's a problem.

PRESENTER

How confident are you that they get this, that they are willing to do what they're being told they have to do in Australia?

WEBSTER

I think a $50 million fine is pretty serious. I think the platforms will take that seriously. But you know, we go back to the fact that we're no longer simply managing national issues. We have global players that play in our space who provide all kinds of services to Australians, as they do to Britons. There is going to be a lot of work to ensure that this does function, that it achieves what it sets out to achieve. I, you know, I have my doubts about the current government being able to enforce and, frankly, to implement, but we in principle agree with the ban. We in principle agree that this is better than doing nothing to protect our children.

PRESENTER

Dr Anne Webster, thank you very much. You're very welcome. And just a word about Roblox, because we got in touch with them. They've got back in touch with us and confirmed actually, that those restrictions that she was talking about, their restrictions designed to limit communication between adults and minors, have been put in place recently. They say they're not really impacted by all of this, because they are principally a gaming platform.