The digital duty of care bill was introduced to parliament by Communications Minister Anika Wells just hours before an appearance at the National Press Club.
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.
Parliament would still be able to legislate further protections against new social media harms that might emerge.
Greens communications spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said the bill falls short of issuing any real incentive to the social media platforms to comply.
"Australians should have the right to take big tech to court and to seek remedy, that is, compensation for the harm that their online experience has done to them," Senator Hanson-Young told reporters on Thursday.
"Otherwise, what is the point of this?"
The South Australian senator also raised concerns the bill lacked measures to curb the addictive elements of social media platforms.
The minister is confident the bill can be passed before Christmas, despite it going to an inquiry, which is due to hand down its final report in late November.
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."
The bill needs the support of the Greens following vehement opposition from the coalition.
Liberal frontbencher James Paterson has labelled the bill unsalvageable due to perceived efforts to censor political debate.
"This is a government which has tried a number of times ... to censor Australian speech," Senator Paterson told News24.
"And we won't have a bar of it."
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.
