Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased that there is bipartisan support for these bills, the Enhancing Online Safety for Children Bill 2014 and the Enhancing Online Safety for Children (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2014. I rise to provide my support for these bills. My endorsement of them comes from a common-sense position in that we have an expectation of safety and freedom from harassment and exploitation at work and in public places. Our children should also have the same expectation of safety online.

Mr Deputy Speaker, you know that the internet used to be a distant, abstract concept. It was something that we heard about through magazines and on television shows. Over the last 15 or so years, it has moved from a vision of the future to our everyday reality. I am sure, Mr Deputy Speaker, that you have got a smart phone in your suit pocket, just like I have. In researching this speech, the internet was used. I use my smart phone to engage with my constituents, through social media, to advise them about what is happening in my electorate and to advise them about what is happening here in the parliament. It has changed. We were hearing from the whip this morning about the phone boxes we have just outside of the chamber and how they are very rarely used now. That is unlike in days gone by, when the smart phone was not here and the technology was such that it was difficult to make contact with your electorates; but now we are always in contact 24/7 with these little smart phones.

Several people have contacted me with the concerns regarding online behaviour. They will have received an email from me in the last few days updating them on the progress of this legislation. As I said, I am really pleased that there is going to be bipartisan support for this very, very important piece of legislation. While most of the members of this House have learnt to use the internet in their adult life, in my son's generation it is the norm. He has grown up with technology, and it is moving faster than anyone could anticipate.

There is no way that you can foresee how much technology is going to change in my granddaughter Evie's generation and what she will experience. I have to say, seeing her with an iPad at just a few months old and how she just naturally knows how to use that technology was quite incredible. I think that, as years go on, we just cannot imagine how this technology is going to be part of our lives. The technology is at our disposal and it has changed dramatically, but the two things have not: one is the law and the other is our expectation that our children should be able to go about their lives, be it online or in real life, without fear of harassment, exploitation, intimidation or humiliation. This bill will address the former and be a great leap forward in the right direction of the latter.

I was a member of the coalition's Online Safety Working Group, which gathered submissions from people right across the nation with expertise in children and adolescent online behaviour. I would like to place on record the good work of my fellow committee members. It is great that the parliamentary secretary—the member for Bradfield—is here, because he chaired that online safety committee and did a fantastic job, along with my colleague Senator Bridget McKenzie; the member for Cowan, Luke Simpkins; the member for Longman, Wyatt Roy; the former member for Barker, Patrick Secker; the now President of the Senate, Senator Stephen Parry; the member for Mitchell, Alex Hawke; and the amazing Nola Marino, who is the member for Forrest and is our deputy whip. I have to say, I would like to commend the member for Forrest on her extraordinary work that she does in this area. She actually briefed the committee and also the coalition members on her presentation that she does in her electorate on a very, very regular basis.

What I learnt throughout that whole process was about the negative online behaviour and its consequences. That was both from my work on the committee and from talking with the people of Solomon. It was quite frightening. The children and young adults that I spoke to told me that they were more afraid of being bullied on the internet than they were of being bullied in the schoolyard. I could not comprehend that. It was all about how if they were being bullied in a schoolyard, there would only be a few people that saw it. But if something bad was written about them on Facebook or posted on Snapchat, YouTube or whatever, it could be sent around very easily. It was very easy to go viral. The kids were really, really scared about that. The view was if it was written down or if it was a visual that could be passed on, then it was actually making it reality.

The perception among young people is that while schoolyard teasing is distressing, it is only temporary and only visible to the kids who are around at the same time in the same place. But online abuse is on display permanently for all the world to see and kids are more likely to believe something, as I said, that is in writing or online than something that is yelled across a schoolyard or a bus stop. As I said, this is alarming and all the more so when you cross-reference it against figures on how much of their young lives people spend online. More than half of children have ready access or ownership of an internet-connected device before they are 10 years of age. Ninety-five per cent of young people use the internet regularly, including social media, emails, games, chats, shopping and of course entertainment. Half of 14- to 17-year olds have access through our smartphones, meaning that they can be, and often are, online anytime and anywhere. While this technology can be of incredible benefit, the same smartphone or tablet that a young person carries with them every day to help with their schoolwork and to stay connected to their friends and family can also be a powerful tool to coerce, intimidate and harass: behaviour that we now call cyberbullying. In a world where so much time is spent online—chatting, playing, learning—it is vitally important that we do all we can to keep the online world safe for our young people. This bill, the Enhancing Online Safety for Children Bill, and the related bill, deliver on the coalition government's pre-election commitment to protect children online.

I endorse this bill because its two-part approach offers a practical tool kit for dealing with unacceptable online behaviour which targets Australian children. Firstly, this bill creates a practical complaints channel for dealing with bullying material targeted at an Australian child. This system will provide an efficient and effective means to get inappropriate material removed. A few years ago in Darwin we had a situation where a number of schoolchildren had set up a Facebook page, and the things that were being put on that Facebook page were not true. It was like a gossip-girl column and it was very hurtful, and the young students involved were devastated. Parents were contacting me to get help to take this information down, because—apart from the fact that it was lies—it was so hurtful and, as I said before, it had the ability to go viral. We also heard the member for Forrest talk about how easy it is for information to be disseminated, particularly with Facebook.

Secondly, the bill creates an officer with the mandate and the powers to manage and enforce that system for complaints. The Children's e-Safety Commissioner within the Australian Communications and Media Authority will be a government entity with the powers required to order that material be removed and to enforce sanctions for non-compliance. This bill is a measured and sensible response to the changing environment we live in, extending the protections our children enjoy in real life to the online realm. But, just as in the real world, we as adults have a responsibility—above and beyond legislation—to protect children and to be appropriate role models in our behaviour. I would like to remind people that this responsibility extends to online behaviour too. All too often, we see adults engage in bullying behaviour online. As part of the online safety group, we heard a number of stories about fights outside the schoolyard—not between the students, but between their parents—that had arisen because of things that were being said on Facebook and Twitter. There would not be a member in this House—probably with the exclusion of yourself, Mr Deputy Speaker!—that has not been subject to online abuse and harassment above and beyond what is acceptable in robust public debate. A child's behaviour towards others will always reflect the behaviour that has been role-modelled for them. In my view, this bill is an excellent legislative response, as it extends the protections our children enjoy in real life to the online world. But it is our responsibility as parents, as guardians and as role models to ensure that we lead by example.

The internet is a wonderful resource for our nation's children. These bills will ensure that, just as there are laws to protect children from abuse and exploitation in the physical world, there are also laws to make online experiences safe for them, and an appropriate agency to enforce those laws against those who would harm children. As we have heard other members say, work needs to continue in this space, but this is a great first step. I am really pleased that there is bipartisan support for these bills. I think that with this bill, the Enhancing Online Safety for Children Bill, we as legislators are doing the right thing. There is also other fantastic work happening—for example, the work that the Alannah and Madeline Foundation are doing; the education of parents and teachers in our communities; and the kind of training that the member for Forrest is doing. In my electorate, the schools do not issue computers or laptops until the parents and the children have had appropriate training to help protect against cyberbullying. I commend these bills to the House.

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