Sydney: Social media giants have reportedly come together to oppose Australian government`s proposal asking the companies to pull down content deemed harmful for younger audience.
Facebook, Twitter and Google have united to reject the proposal of appointing a children`s e-safety commissioner with the power to force sites to take down posts containing bullying or harassment.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association, representing the major social media companies, said that the proposal is too cumbersome and would not cover popular messaging services such as Snapchat and Kik.
The association noted that a policy that clamps down on such content has the potential to drive younger people to engage in risk-taking behaviour on services that have less well-developed protections in place.
Meanwhile, Facebook has argued that the definition of harmful content is too broad and could be used to target, for example, photos of children `planking` with their friends.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Communications, Paul Fletcher, has maintained that the current system of self-regulation was not sufficient to protect children against online bullying, the report added.
