By Andrew Brown and Lucinda Garbutt-Young in Canberra

It will be harder to protect social media users from harmful content after proposed sweeping powers for one minister were scrapped, a senior Labor MP says.

Communications Minister Anika Wells will introduce legislation to set up a digital duty of care on Thursday, which will restrict content for underage users and give people the option of an algorithm-less feed.

Under the proposal, social media platforms would be forced to protect users under 18 from content that promotes crime or eating disorders, pornography or misogynistic content, as well as posts that cause distress.

But the communications minister will no longer have discretionary powers to define what could constitute a new harm, following concerns it could lead to political censorship.

Ms Wells said the powers were scrapped to get the bill across the line with the Greens, who hold the balance of power in the upper house.

“You would want me to move as quickly as I could (if your child was being harmed), and that was the intent of the power,” she told Nine’s Today show.

“However, it has been a clear stumbling block for other political parties.”

Parliament would still be able to legislate further protections against new social media harms that might emerge.

The minister is confident the bill can be passed before Christmas, despite it likely going to an inquiry, as called for by the Greens.

Greens communications spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young confirmed on Thursday she would push the bill to an inquiry, due to report in November.

“There’s no point having a duty of care on paper that can’t actually be enforced,” she told ABC, adding she would be “kicking the tyres” to ensure Labor’s plan would work.

Ms Wells said she was consulting with the Greens and wanted to work quickly.

“We absolutely anticipated an inquiry,” she said.

“This is the most compelling policy question of our generation and it’s important that we give it all the scrutiny it deserves.”

Ms Wells will say in an address to the National Press Club on Thursday the reforms are crucial to ensuring safety for online users.

“Australia’s digital duty of care will set basic safety standards for the online services we use every day, just like we have in every other industry,” she will say in the speech.

“We must shift the burden from the shoulders of victims to the companies that are creating the environments where harms occur.

“The core of the duty is to provide a safe online environment, where all Australians are protected from seriously harmful and illegal content.”

The digital duty of care will also contain carve-outs for public interest journalists, clarifying protections in place under the Online Safety Act.

Ms Wells will say options to turn off algorithms will give users  the power to choose how they view their social media feeds.

“Social media platforms will have to provide user empowerment tools that give people over the age of 16 choice about what they see in their feed,” she will say.

“If someone wants their feed filled with friends and creators they follow, the social media platforms must give them that choice, and if you’re happy to stick with your algorithm, you can do so.”

The federal government unveiled a draft proposal for the digital duty of care in September, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said was the next phase of online protections after the world-first ban on under-16s using social media introduced in December.

Before Ms Wells announced the amendment to the legislation, deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume told reporters on Wednesday that the coalition would not support it.

”If the government can demonstrate that this digital duty of care bill has been dramatically changed … bring it forward, we’ll look at it,” she said.

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