Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to continue my comments.

Leave granted.

I continue my remarks around the ThinkUKnow program and the need for parents to be very well aware of what their children are involved with online. ThinkUKnow is one initiative of this government; the Office of the Children's eSafety Commissioner is another, and a very valuable resource it is, too.

One of the elements of ThinkUKnow is a wonderful children's line, a free service that is available for young people. The number, for those who might be interested, is 0800 1111. What young people will find at the end of this line is a counsellor who is going to listen, who will not make judgements and who will be able to give them good advice. When young people do something silly, make a mistake or come across things that scare them, they often will not talk to mum or dad. From my experience of hundreds of cybersafety presentations and just listening to children in those presentations, I know a number of them choose not to tell mum or dad or even a trusted adult—and that is what I asked them to do, to find that trusted adult—because they are worried that mum and dad might punish them, take away the device or limit the amount of time they can have to use the device. When that is the case for a young person, I really encourage them to call either the Kids Helpline or Childline, which is part of ThinkUKnow. Not only is it, as I said, a free call for these young people who are worried about what is going on; it does not actually show up on their phone bill either. Given that that can frequently be a very important issue for a young person, it is a very good service to help them deal with what they need to deal with online.

We know that the majority of people using the wonderful resource that is the internet are there for the right reasons, but, with the proportion that are not, children need to know how to stay safe, where to go for help and who to ask for help, which is where the Children's eSafety Commissioner comes in.

When I talk to young people, I cover items such as Facebook and Twitter, their digital and online footprint, cyberbullying and the issue of online grooming for sex, which, unfortunately, is too common. I talk about sexting and scams as well. It is interesting that the youngest person that we have had so far was a young girl of 11. Her mother rang my office after one of my presentations to say that after listening to the presentation her 11-year-old daughter had come home to say, 'I've just realised I'm being groomed online for sex'—she is 11. In some of the other presentations I have done, the young people who have come forward were 13 and 14. When we talk about the issues around image based abuse and we see young people who take naked or semi-naked photos and share them, it is also a great concern. Only a couple of weeks ago, I did a presentation to a school in the southern part of my electorate and I had a parent ring me since who said, 'My 13-year-old daughter has just told me that she shared a completely naked photo of herself with her boyfriend. They have now separated and he has chosen to share those photos with his new girlfriend and others.' The thought of a 13-year-old girl sharing those photos in the first place is an issue, but then what happens to those photos and the fact that they are basically there forever is of real concern. The fact that the child was able to talk to her father about this problem was a positive, and the fact that he was then going to talk to the eSafety Commissioner about how to get this dealt with was even better. It is very important that young people assume that whatever they share could well be available for others to see, use and share almost indefinitely. That is something that I frequently find young people do not understand, and even adults do not understand, in this space. Simply pressing 'Delete' on your particular device is not enough because this is out on the internet. Subject to the opposition's support, I will continue my remarks later.

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