He added that Parliamentary committees have heard the "farcical suggestions" from social networking companies that there are no children under 13 years of age on their websites.

"The problem is these social networking companies continue to say `we're offshore and there is nothing you can do about it' when we're dealing with profoundly young children using these sites and these companies really need to engage better with regulators in Australia," he said.

Hawke, who is also a Coalition MP, said that the Coalition's Online Safety Working Group is actively looking at the proposed regulations.

"If we are returned to government, we will put in place policy in this area," he said.

Computerworld Australia has contacted Facebook Australia and is awaiting comment.