A bill currently before Parliament aims to make social media safer by targeting the sharing of non-consensual sexual images and content fostering self-harm, bullying and hatred.

But social media does vastly greater harm through the design and function of its algorithms. Ample evidence shows that algorithmic feeds make products such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram highly addictive and harmful, causing enormous damage to health and welfare, especially for teens.

The federal government should amend its Online Harms Act to follow the example of Europe, California and other governments that have passed laws to make the Big Tech platforms give users a choice to opt out of algorithmic feeds or choose what user data they can exploit.

As drafted, the legislation targets only “harmful content,” imposing a duty on platforms to prevent sharing that content or to remove it promptly when flagged. The bill does not address the design or function of algorithmic feeds.

Algorithms are not the sole cause of social media harm. Notifications, metrics and viral posts also drive addiction. But algorithms are at the heart of it.

People get hooked on slot machines because random winnings train them to believe the next win may be........

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