John McVeigh (Groom, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On a recent weekend, my wife and I had the opportunity to catch up with a group of friends for dinner. All of our group share the common bond of having come to know one another over the last decade or more during the years in which our children attended kindergarten, preschool, primary school and secondary school together. As parents, we have known all of these children as toddlers, small children and teenagers, and I suspect that for all of us it has been our most important and sacred role—to guide and protect those we have been blessed with in their studies, their careers and adulthood. Our network of friends facilitated much of that. We looked out for one another, we did our best to monitor friendship groups and we insisted we meet our kids' friends and their parents, arranged parties and prepared them as best we could for the pressures and challenges of the teenage years. I am proud to say that they are a fine group of young people doing their own thing, and I am sure we are all most proud of this group of young people.

There are some in society who would seek to circumvent such family and community groups' protection of children by attacking and taking advantage of them via online means. Such behaviour is disgraceful, reprehensible, foul and un-Australian. It has absolutely no place in our society whatsoever. That is why the bill we are debating this evening, as part of the Turnbull government's efforts to protect vulnerable children online, is so very important. Its genesis as the tragic death of Carly Ryan, a 15-year-old girl who was lured to her demise by a man in his 50s posing online as another teenager, is sobering indeed.

Over the last decade, we have seen child sex offences rightfully strengthened and expanded, including those directed at the use of carriage services such as the internet and mobile phones for the sexual exploitation of children. This bill goes further, amending the Criminal Code in order to introduce a new offence relating to online acts to prepare or plan to cause harm to a child, to engage in sexual activity with a child, or to procure a child for that reason. As such, it focuses solely on the intention of such a perpetrator without having to identify a specific child victim or prove communication with a specific child victim, and regardless of whether a perpetrator is targeting an actual child—as could be the case with a police officer, for example, assuming the identity of a fictitious child in order to expose such perpetrators. Such harms can be considered to be psychological or physical, such as unconsciousness, pain and disfigurement. Procurement can be considered to be encouraging, enticing, recruiting and inducing a child to engage in a sexual activity. The bill is intended to achieve all of this in a way that recognises trivial issues and allows for judgements to be made about what conduct might be acceptable or incidental to social interaction or to life in our community. Consequential amendments are also to be made to ensure existing law enforcement powers are available to combat all Commonwealth child-related offences.

As the government steps up efforts to provide greater protection for Australian children online, it is timely for our whole community to recognise our responsibility to be at the front line of protecting our vulnerable children from abhorrent activities anywhere, any time, in person, in public and of course online, as this bill addresses. As parents, as legislators, as education services, as community groups and as members, we all have a role to play in maintaining a watchful eye over children and minors in our society.

There are few news items that can stop our society in its tracks as do revelations of vile acts against our children. What future do we as a society have if we are not doing our utmost to protect vulnerable children? We are often sickened by news of those who are attacked, and, in more tragic cases, of those who we lose forever at the hands of perpetrators who must simply be dealt with. We must strive to prevent such actions before they can cause heartache. We also hear so much about the lifelong impacts on victims who can carry their physical and psychological scars for life. I urge parents to get involved in their children's use of technology in a bid to prevent cyberbullying before it occurs, as well as to protect them from online predators, as is the objective of this bill. Our children's safety online is vital, and I am so pleased that the government shares the concern of my own community back in the electorate of Groom that the internet, through social media, is being used by predators to target our most vulnerable.

What we are doing in this bill is taking steps to strengthen existing laws while introducing a new offence criminalising acts online in preparation for doing, or planning to do, harm to a minor. The amendments broaden the scope to capture offences which could result in physical harm or harm to someone's mental health. A preparatory act may, for example, include a person using social media to lie about their age or an event in an attempt to lure a child into a meeting.

While we debate this bill about protecting minors online, I also want to make mention of the Office of the Children's eSafety Commissioner's range of classroom resources, as has been discussed in this House; their outreach programs; and a service dedicated to investigating serious cyberbullying cases, including a youth program called Rewrite Your Story. I certainly encourage all parents to check the resources of the eSafety Commissioner and start the conversation to ensure our children are cybersmart and cybersafe.

I call on all parents to play a role in protecting children online by having ongoing conversations with their children about their various online activities. For small children, we can put in place online safeguards and parental control settings—filters and products that block certain content. We should also talk to older children about the risks of sharing information, and particularly photos, with people that they do not know. For teenagers, their online life is an important part of their social identity. We know you cannot just switch off the computer and expect that the online comments and risks will go away. We must talk to our children about cyberbullying and these online predators.

Australians can be assured that the government recognises children are amongst the most vulnerable in our society, and they need and deserve our care and protection. There are few crimes, as I have said, that are more vile than child sex offences, and this Criminal Code Amendment (Protecting Minors Online) Bill is one that I therefore commend very, very strongly.

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