John Cobb (Calare, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have enough grandchildren to field an AFL team. Admittedly, they were not born south of the border and, being normal people, they know more about rugby league, rugby union and netball than they do about AFL! The point is that even if I did not have that many grandchildren I would still have to support this Enhancing Online Safety for Children Bill 2014. I guess if you come here and do not see looking after children as one of our priorities then you should not be here.

I think the figure that is really amazing in all of this—and we are talking about cyberbullying in particular—is that they say 20 per cent, one in five, children aged between eight and 17—and they are not really children by the time they are 17—are the victims of bullying. Not that they have had it tried on them, but if you are a victim then it has affected you badly.

We live in a very different world; a world where far older people can be influenced online and even convinced that they need to go over and be part of the lunacy that is happening in the Middle East at the moment with the death cult. If they can be lured, then it is not surprising that those between the ages of eight and 17 can be extraordinarily influenced by it.

If you were born before 1980 or 1970 or, if I am honest, before 1960, then it is a bit hard to imagine why it happens. Why do they bother reading it? On the other hand, there is no pressure stronger than peer pressure, as anyone in this House knows. We suffer from it and teenagers are more prone to the pressures of their age group than almost anyone else at all.

Research has revealed that almost half a million Australian children suffered some form of cyberabuse last year alone. I would be absolutely staggered if there were no a person in this room who does not see that as a incredible figure. Obviously, we do have to do something about it and I am sure that this is a bipartisan debate that we are having. I certainly hope that it is. These changes are awfully important and they certainly need to work. As government representatives, or representatives of electorates, whatever your position in this place—it is an incredibly important bill to keep our children safer online.

Children have access to all kinds of internet—including social media, which can make bullying a lot easier. But the damage is still the same and we will have an incredible effect upon them. I encourage us all to stop and think for a bit about our children—and our nieces and nephews, our grandchildren, whoever it might be. We should think about whether we want them to think that we ignored something so incredibly painful, something that has such a huge effect on their lives—if we did not do everything we could to stop cyberbullying.

I am sure we are all behind this, and we have to do what is possible in this day and age to meet a modern phenomenon with a modern approach. Anxiety, depression and behavioural issues are just some of the effects. Yes, I think the member for Riverina used the phrase 'mental illness', but certainly this sort of behaviour socially will cause all of those things—deep depression and even suicidal tendencies—a terrible thought, and one you would not have thought possible. It is hard to think that people could so seriously consider such things when young, but they do. And it is caused by modern communications and social media. If this bill can bring about changes that stop just one instance of that, then obviously it has been worthwhile. We have an obligation to all victims, those who have been in terrible straits up until now because of it, to make sure they know that from now on it will be somewhat harder for people to get away with indulging in it.

We are all aware that we, the coalition, made a commitment at the 2013 election to improve the safety of children online. We had a policy to establish an effective complaints system backed by legislation to get this sort of bullying material down from large social media services. This legislation delivers on this commitment. It will establish the Office of the Children's e-Safety Commissioner, which will be a single point of contact for online safety issues and will take that lead across government in implementing policies to improve the safety of our kids online. This commitment won overwhelming support from the community because everyone recognises that this is a very real issue. But it is not something you can touch; you can only deal with it in the same way it happens.

The figures and facts that I provided are very real. We have consulted extensively with schools, parents, children, social media services and other stakeholders over the last few years and long before we got into government. While everyone agrees we have to do something, we have heard that message loud and clear. It is now time to do something. This bill does have the potential to make a difference to hundreds of thousands of lives. When you consider that almost half a million young people are going to be affected by this in any one year, it is quite a staggering figure. If it makes life easier for parents—it is very hard for parents to deal with these things. It is not visible. There is obviously no child today that is not going to be online; they are all going to be using modern IT and social communications. It is almost impossible for parents to deal with it directly. Doing something that makes it possible for government to come down hard on those providers who are advised of where the problems are and do not deal with them when they are able to is something I think we would all have to be in favour of.

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