New Delhi, Oct. 21 -- After banning children under 16 from holding accounts on major social media platforms last December, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government is widening its campaign against online harm. Communications Minister Anika Wells is seeking to unite countries in a global coalition to pressure companies such as Meta to make their platforms safer, in a move that is now potentially expanding international efforts to tighten regulation of the tech industry.

Speaking with Bloomberg, Wells said that such a coalition could adopt a template that Canberra is expecting to form to pressure the world's biggest companies to protect children, who are being exposed to wide-ranging online harms, from sex and violence to pr...