Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise this evening to talk on these very important bills, which focus on enhancing online safety for our most important asset the generations to come; that is, indeed, our children. Today, in the 21st century, all of us communicate in large part with iPhones, iPads and computers. The distinction between the concrete world and cyberspace or the cyberworld, if I may use the terminology, is increasingly blurred.

It has already been highlighted by many speakers as this debate has been conducted today that what people are prepared to communicate across the internet is not necessarily what they may be prepared to communicate if they see or meet you face-to-face. Nine in every 10 children between the aged 10 and 11 years say that their parents are their first point of call when they have an online safety issue. But as young people increase in age into the early and middle teens, that is less likely to be the case. As a parent of a 21-year-old and a 19-year-old, I have observed over the last decade as they immerse themselves online. The main access for their communication with their friends and their social network is across the internet. We all know Facebook and so on is how they communicate and how they build their networks and their relationships and keep in touch.

I have also observed firsthand the impact on my daughters' and my sons' friends as they have experienced cyberbullying directly: having to move from school to school, being isolated from their friends and having the experience of not being able to escape from the bullying. As has been discussed already, it is a 24-hour experience. They are at school and they experience bullying. The bullying continues on Facebook, through the internet and through emails. It is spread through their own network and their own friends, which may be several hundred, and is also connected with everybody else, their friends and their friends' networks. Thousands of people get to see and be a part of this bullying experience. For the individual and their family, it has a profound effect psychologically: depression, thoughts of suicide and, unfortunately, for some it has to contributed towards them ultimately taking their own life.

While we cannot 100 per cent prevent this, what we came do and what these bills endeavour to do is to put in place some measures that will help contribute towards the safety of our children. What these bills do is establish the Office of the Children's e-Safety Commissioner and sets out the commissioner's functions and powers. It creates a complaint system for harmful cyberbullying material targeted at an Australian child. It provides the commissioner with two sets of powers, the first being to issue a notice to a large social media service requiring it to remove the material and the second being to issue a notice to the person who posted the material, requiring the person to remove the material and refrain from posting material or apologise for posting the material. Organisations and social media services, providers and businesses will have to—if they do not already—set up a complaints system. That is, a point of contact not just for the individual that is being bullied but also for the Children's e-Safety Commissioner to be able to contact them. A key function of the commissioner is to administer this complaint system for cyberbullying material targeted at our children.

In 2014, the University of New South Wales' Social Policy Research Centre concluded that the best estimate of cyberbullying over a 12 month period is 20 per cent of Australians aged 8 to 17. I concur with many who have spoken today in that I believe that this is probably an underestimation of the impact. The University of New South Wales research also found that 87 per cent of secondary schools reported at least one instance of cyberbullying in 2013, as did just under 60 per cent of primary schools. These figures are deeply concerning to anyone who has a commitment to our children and to their future.

The legislation will state the parliament's expectation is that all social media services should comply with certain basic online safety requirements: firstly, to have terms of use that prohibit the posting of cyberbullying material; secondly, as has already been mentioned, to have a complaints scheme under which end users of the service can seek to have material that breaches service's terms of use removed; and, thirdly, to have a contact person to whom the commissioner can refer complaints that users consider have not been adequately dealt with. Many in our community believe this is necessary legislation. Director of the National Children's and Youth Law Centre, Matthew Keeley, states: 'The Enhancing Online Safety For Children Bill is good law and good policy. Kids—both victims of cyberbullies and the cyberbullies themselves—will be the major beneficiaries. Parents and teachers benefit too. The cyberbullying provisions, I think, will come to be seen as a world-leading strategy. The accreditation and grants provisions will do more to ensure consistent best practice in education and preventative approaches.' We in this place can do nothing better than provide legislation that will contribute towards the current and future protection of our children. This is an opportunity for us to take a step in a direction that will focus on a challenge that we face in the 21st century, as the internet—communication in cyberspace—is where most of our communication takes place. I commend the bill to the House.

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