Russell Matheson (Macarthur, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is great to see the bipartisan approach that has been taken in relation to cyberbullying. I thank the member for Shortland for her contribution today. I rise here today to offer my support to the Enhancing Online Safety for Children Bill 2014. Parents, schools, teachers and children throughout my electorate of Macarthur have given me extensive feedback about the harmful effects of cyberbullying and the terrible impact it can have on young people.

This bill will play a significant role in addressing the growing problem of cyberbullying and will enhance online safety for children living in Macarthur and across the country. The bill includes a range of measures to combat cyberbullying and provide a safer online environment for children, including establishing the office of a Children's e-Safety Commissioner and setting out the commissioner's functions and powers, creating an effective complaints system for harmful cyberbullying material targeted at an Australian child, with the commissioner given two sets of powers it can use in responding to a complaint—(1) the power to issue a notice to a large social media service requiring it to remove material, and (2) the power to issue a notice to the person who posted the material, requiring that person to remove the material, refrain from posting material or apologise for posting the material.

Ultimately, these measures are designed to encourage large social media services to work with and cooperate with the commissioner under what is called tier 1. However, if a large social media service repeatedly fails to respond to a notice from the commissioner then it can be moved to tier 2, meaning it has a legal duty to remove cyberbullying material if it receives a notice from the commissioner and faces substantial fines if it does not.

The government has consulted very extensively with schools, parents, children, young people from the ages of five to 17, social media services and other stakeholders. The message we received from the community was emphatic and unequivocal: the government must act to fight cyberbullying and help keep Aussie kids safer online. This bill is a big step towards Australian children being better protected against cyberbullying and being safer when they go online.

The coalition went to the 2013 election with a policy to establish an effective complaints system backed by legislation to get cyberbullying material down fast from large social media services. This legislation delivers on that commitment. This legislation will establish the office of the Children's e-Safety Commissioner, which will be a single point of contact for safety issues and will take the lead across government in implementing policies to improve the safety of children online. The legislation will state the parliament's expectation that social media services comply with certain basic online safety requirements to have: terms of use that sufficiently prohibit the posting of cyberbullying material; a complaints scheme under which end users of the service can seek to have material that breaches the service's terms of use removed; and a contact person for the commissioner to refer complaints that users consider have not been adequately dealt with. The commissioner will have the role of communicating the expectation to social media service providers as far as practicable.

Complaints regarding cyberbullying material on social media services may be referred to the commissioner if they have not been adequately resolved by the social media service. The commissioner will have the power to investigate complaints and conduct such investigations as the commissioner sees fit. The commissioner will maintain registers of tier 1 and tier 2 social media services and will be able to publish statements about social media services failing to comply with the basic online safety requirements, failing to comply with a request for removal of cyberbullying material or failing to comply with a social media service notice.

A very clear principle of the complaints process is that the first step before a complaint can be received and considered by the Children's e-Safety Commissioner is that the complainant must have reported the cyberbullying to the large social media site under its established processes. This is because the government recognises that many social media sites have significantly improved their complaints handling arrangements for removal of cyberbullying material. If a site receives a complaint and acts on it promptly, there will be no need for the complainant to go to the Children's e-Safety Commissioner and the scheme will have no impact at all on the operation of the site's normal processes. It is only if a site does not respond that the Children's e-Safety Commissioner will get involved. The design of the rapid removal scheme minimises the impact on industry by utilising social media sites' existing complaints handling processes and online safety initiatives. Ultimately, the two-tier scheme has been developed to minimise the burden on, and regulatory exposure of, social media services that cooperate with the Children's e-Safety Commissioner.

The government is committed to working with industry to ensure that better child online safety tools for smartphone and other devices and internet access services are readily available for parents to purchase. The coalition's stated election commitment was to work with mobile phone companies—such as Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and their resellers—and internet service providers that provide fixed broadband services to the home to make software available that parents can choose to install on their own devices to protect their children from inappropriate material. The government has established a child online safety tool working group with representatives of major internet service providers and mobile operators which has begun work on this service. The Children's e-Safety Commissioner will take this work forward once appointed.

The commissioner will take a national leadership role on children's online safety initiatives across government to develop and implement policies to improve safety for children online. The commissioner's office will be established as an independent statutory office within the Australian Communications and Media Authority. The commissioner will work closely with police and other government agencies, as well as with the internet industry, child protection organisations, and parent and teacher associations.

The commissioner will administer funding of $7.5 million for online safety programs in schools and also support Australian based research and information campaigns on online safety. Other functions for the commissioner will include: coordinating relevant activities of Commonwealth departments, authorities and agencies; supporting, conducting, accrediting and evaluating educational and community awareness programs; and making grants and advising the communications minister. The commissioner will also have the function of administering the online content scheme set out in schedules 5 and 7 of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. That was previously administered by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and is being transferred to the commissioner without substantive amendment.

Since I have been in parliament, the member for Forrest has been a champion against cyberbullying and has travelled around Australia to cyberbullying forums. In my electorate there have been many, many forums in relation to cyberbullying. I know a young man by the name of Josh Cotter who works within the Catholic school system. He has been going around to all the Catholic schools. They have a cyberbullying network that they talk about in the schools. At every forum I have been to in relation to cyberbullying people have got up to talk about their experience and what has occurred to them in relation to cyberbullying. You can see the pain etched in their faces when they start to talk about it. Very often it brings tears. There are mental health effects.

This bill addresses a lot of things a lot of things in relation to cyberbullying and will stop people from getting online and virtually terrorising people. Too often, we hear of young people who have taken their lives because of cyberbullying. The youth forums have worked really well in relation to it. The big issue that arises in relation to cyberbullying is mental health. It has a huge impact in the Macarthur region. This legislation goes a long, long way to addressing those concerns.

The member for Forrest, who has championed this matter since I have been in parliament, has done a wonderful job. Through her efforts, she has brought this to the attention of this parliament. She has worked tirelessly and fearlessly since I have been here to make sure that legislation is introduced to address cyberbullying. I congratulate the member for Forrest.

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