Independent senator David Pocock held up a thick stack of printed examples of self-harm content as he questioned TikTok at the Senate’s Digital Duty of Care inquiry on Monday 9 November, ABC News reported. TikTok Australia’s head of public policy, Jessika Lofstedt, told the committee that self-harm is banned under the platform’s community guidelines, offered to have specific examples investigated and rejected the suggestion that TikTok has a widespread problem.
The inquiry is examining the Online Safety Amendment (Digital Duty of Care) Bill 2026, referred to the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee on 15 October. Meta, Google, TikTok Australia and Snap appeared by videoconference from 1.15pm, according to the hearing programme, after senators heard earlier in the day from parents and experts, among them Chanel Contos of Teach Us Consent and the Alannah & Madeline Foundation.
The Exchange Over Self-Harm Content
Senator Pocock put his first question to TikTok in commercial terms. “I’m interested, as a platform, as a business, why you allow self-harm content on your platform?” he said, Mumbrella reported.
Ms Lofstedt pointed to the platform’s rules. “We have very stringent community guidelines, and self-harm is very much against community guidelines,” she said, according to ABC News.
Senator Pocock told the hearing that a Canberra mother had come to his mobile office on the morning of 9 November. She told him her daughter had got past TikTok’s age verification and had then been shown self-harm content, Mumbrella reported.
He also described what he saw as a pattern at Senate inquiries. “Why is it every time we have a Senate inquiry, you platforms will say, ‘Well, we don’t have that on our platform,’ and then when we have concrete examples, you say, ‘Well, if you give us those individual cases, we’ll deal with them individually’?” he said, according to Mumbrella.
“We don’t get it right every time, but we continue to reiterate on making sure that the safety of our community is paramount,” Ms Lofstedt told the committee, Mumbrella reported.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, the committee’s deputy chair, joined the questioning and called it “ridiculous” for an inquiry to have to chase specific examples, ABC News reported. According to Mumbrella, she said: “So how come it’s trending?” and “If that’s the case, there is a problem with your platform, and that is why we actually need some proper rules in place, because your community guidelines clearly aren’t cutting it.”
Near the end of the session, Senator Pocock pointed to a single post that he said had 480,000 likes, more than 2,000 comments, 36,000 saves and 12,000 reposts, Mumbrella reported.
What the Bill Would Do
The bill would bring the algorithms and artificial intelligence tools that platforms rely on under regulation, and companies that fail to mitigate risks could face fines of up to $109 million, ABC News reported. It would also ban nudify apps and let users opt in or out of algorithmic feeds. It passed the House of Representatives in October without Coalition support.
Ms Lofstedt also raised concerns about the bill’s wording. “We do hold the concerns that the piece of legislation or the bill that’s currently in front of us indeed replaces certainty with ambiguity and with subjectivity,” she said, according to ABC News.
Liberal senator Sarah Henderson called the bill “unclear” and “vague”, ABC News reported.
Communications Minister Anika Wells spoke about the bill on ABC News Breakfast on the morning of 9 November, saying the industry had run like the “wild west” for 20 years. “We think big tech needs to be held to account, and if you build it, you should be responsible for its harms,” she said.
What the Other Platforms Said
Senator Hanson-Young asked the platforms whether people harmed online should be able to “seek recourse”, ABC News reported, and the Greens want a right to compensation written into the bill. Snapchat said remedies are best run through the eSafety Commissioner’s framework, TikTok said the Online Safety Act already provides avenues, and Meta said it would be challenging to amend the bill so that individuals could sue for damages.
What the Committee Does Next
The committee, chaired by Senator Varun Ghosh, sits for a second day in Canberra on Tuesday 10 November and is due to report by 20 November 2026, according to Parliament’s inquiry page.
More from our Technology section includes TikTok’s earlier tangle with European regulators over transparency.
If this story raises concerns for you, Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800.
Sources: ABC News, “Federal politics: TikTok executives grilled over reports of self-harm content, as it happened”, 9 November 2026 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-11-09/federal-politics-live-blog-digital-duty-of-care-/107362100); Mumbrella, “David Pocock confronts Tiktok over self-harm content reaching young users”, 9 November 2026 (https://mumbrella.com.au/david-pocock-confronts-tiktok-over-self-harm-content-reaching-young-users-943984); Parliament of Australia, “Online Safety Amendment (Digital Duty of Care) Bill 2026” inquiry page and public hearing program, 9 November 2026 (https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/DigitalDutyofCare48P)
Photo: Hamiltonstone, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Empty desks and microphones in a Senate committee room at Parliament House, Canberra, in 2007. This is not the room or the day of the 9 November hearing.
