Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) the easy access of violent sexually explicit material online poses a risk to our children's wellbeing; and

(b) authoritative research has linked regular consumption of pornography by adolescents depicting violence with increased degrees of sexually aggressive behaviour; and

(2) calls on our community to work together to:

(a) increase awareness that exposure to graphic images can influence children's attitude towards sexual behaviour;

(b) encourage open discussions within families; and

(c) utilise the services of the eSafety Commissioner's online iparent website to increase awareness of how families can keep safe online.

As individuals in this place, I am sure all members would agree that we do not always agree, but, when it comes to protecting the youngest Australians, our solidarity gives rise to a powerful opportunity to effect change. We unite because we put Australian children before politics. I thank you for the opportunity to bring this motion that notes that 'the easy access of violent sexually explicit material online poses a risk to our children's wellbeing'. It is a risk that at any level is uncomfortably large because the statistics do not represent lost earnings or productivity; the statistics represent child victims.

Technology is a wonderful thing, but it is a movable feast that can be harnessed for good as well as bad. As child advocate Hetty Johnston says, when it comes to technology, there is darkness in the wow. She offers an analogy that is like throwing a Molotov cocktail at my ever-flickering protective parenting instinct. She says giving your child access to technology without supervision is akin to dropping them off at King's Cross at midnight, picking them up in the morning and expecting them not to have been exposed to any harm. I think about how difficult absolute supervision is, given where, when and how often my children, my three sons, and our children, Australian children, access the internet, while at the same time realising that the associated challenge, no matter how difficult it is, is no excuse.

It is difficult to get solid figures for the size of the online pornography industry. How much of it is there? How big is the industry? Paid access is set to yield some $100 billion a year—that is, almost 25 per cent of the federal budget!—but roughly 80 to 90 per cent of users are accessing material for free. You get a good idea of its size by extrapolating that out. If 10 to 20 per cent represents $100 billion, putting a price on free access would make it a $1 trillion industry.

When you consider that authoritative research has linked regular consumption by adolescents of pornography depicting violence with an increased degree of sexually aggressive behaviour, the potential for harm and the reach of its impact become obvious. Many a researcher can point to data that shows a correlation, for example, between pornography and a shift in expectations, pressure and acceptance of coercive or forced sex—that is, a correlation between consumption of pornography and the normalising of rape.

Despite the potential for serious consequences, inappropriate pornographic content has become impossible for our children to avoid. My research suggests that a filter that will effectively shield our kids online and protect them from harm does not exist. Predators devote their lives to cracking such things, so it is unlikely to have the intended consequence of protecting children. Of lesser concern, but a consequence nevertheless, is that filtering is likely to inadvertently block adult access to legal content—but that is a completely different debate.

There is no easy fix. Our approach needs to be multifaceted. I am proud to support the introduction of measures that target revenge porn and I welcome discussion of what is known as Carly's law, which offers tools that enable us to act against online predators sooner. I call on the community to work together to increase awareness that exposure to graphic images can influence children's attitudes towards sexual behaviour. I also encourage open discussions within families. I know that when I spoke about it with one of my sons, who was 14, it was all a bit late. He said, 'Oh, Dad, I've seen all that—seen it at school.' I had missed the boat.

Ms Marino interjecting—

The member for Forrest would know. It is really important that parents in my electorate talk to their young children. Bravehearts actually say that you can start as young as three—which seems extremely young, but it is important to put it out there. I encourage open discussion within families. Make yourselves familiar, as members here on both sides of the House, with providers of advice and assistance so that you can connect families in your electorates with information and services that are available to support them. The organisation Porn Harms Kids have an enormous bank of information, and their website is pornharmskids.org.au. Utilise the services of the safety commissioner's online iParent website as well at esafety.gov.au. (Time expired)

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Julia Banks (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion.

Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor is committed to protecting children from exposure to inappropriate material over the internet at home, school and other public access points. Labor has a strong track record when it comes to promoting online safety. In government in 2008, Labor delivered $125.8 million towards a cybersafety plan to combat online risks to children and to help parents and educators protect children from inappropriate material and contacts while online. In 2010, Labor established the Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety as part of its commitment to investigating and improving cybersafety measures. The committee released a report with 32 recommendations, each of which was endorsed and responded to by the Labor government. More recently, in the November 2016 Senate report Harm being done to Australian children through access to pornography on the internet, Labor senators contributed additional comments. In that report, Labor acknowledged that the contemporary reach and accessibility of sexually explicit material, including pornography and sex education material via the internet, is unprecedented. For these reasons, I am pleased to rise to speak on this motion.

The potential harms of sexually explicit material include: distress for younger children; habitual or compulsive consumption of pornography; greater engagement in risky sexual behaviour, resulting in adverse sexual and mental health outcomes in many cases; body image and self-esteem issues; and negative impact on the development of healthy and respectful relationships, including the rise of problem sexting and revenge porn, and sexual offending by children, imitating acts they may have seen online. Of course, there is a place and context for sexual education, including information for young people about gender and sexuality, and increased awareness of sexual rights and responsibilities.

It is worth noting that the term 'children' is broad and that the needs, abilities, interests and behaviours of children are related to their stage of development. It is instructive to use more specific categorisations, such as 'young children', being 0 to 12 years of age, and 'adolescents' or 'young people', being 13 to 17 years of age, and to understand that age may affect whether, and the extent to which, children are vulnerable to portrayals of sexual activity.

I note also that the term 'pornography' is used to refer to a vast and diverse range of content, from soft-core imagery to graphically violent material that may in fact be refused classification in Australia, or images exchanged consensually over mobile devices, between people in relationships for example. For a broad range of reasons, including for the purposes of sexual education, the term 'sexually explicit material', or SEM, is preferred by social scientists, and is more useful given that children may produce, seek out or be exposed to a broad range of sexually explicit material on the internet.

Labor supports an evidence based best-practice approach to policy making and regards quality research as a sound basis for effective intervention. We advocate for more-sophisticated and nuanced approaches to inform progress on the important issue of the impact of sexually explicit material on children in Australia. While further targeted research would assist in understanding consumption, and the impact of sexually explicit material on children, it is, meanwhile, incumbent upon all in the community to safeguard children. Labor understands that we live in an era where many children have greater facility with technology than their parents and that, indeed, a multifaceted approach to protecting children from harmful content is an ongoing necessity. This includes measures such as adult supervision, technological access prevention measures, including appropriate and workable internet filtering, and education of children as well as adults.

In Australia, industry codes of practice require Australian internet service providers to make available an accredited internet content filter, a family friendly filter, at or below cost price. It is unfortunate that no control mechanism is 100 per cent failsafe, which is why the iParent web page, maintained by the Office of the Children's eSafety Commissioner, outlines a range of tools that parents may use to safeguard their children online, whether on a computer, tablet, smartphone or gaming console. I look forward to meeting with the eSafety Commissioner when she visits Parliament House next week, and to sharing information with my colleagues and constituents to assist in promoting the iParent web page within our local communities. Labor understands the value in promoting awareness amongst Australians about the varied tools for managing internet use.

Finally, as a mother of two young girls, I acknowledge the important sentiment of this motion and the need for all of us in this place to keep the protection of children paramount in our policy deliberations on this very important topic.

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of this very important motion moved by the Member for Petrie, which deals with an issue that at some stage could impact almost every single family, including my own, in my electorate on the Central Coast. The motion outlines the serious issues around accessing explicit material online, and the impact that it can have on adolescents in particular. It describes some of the approaches that we—our communities, and together as a nation—need to use to tackle this challenge. The first approach is to encourage open discussion within families. The second is for families to be aware of the resources and networks that are there to help them.

There is no doubt that this is an important issue that strikes a nerve in my community. A number of constituents in my community have raised this with me. Joanne from North Gosford wrote to me, deeply concerned about how sexually explicit content online could pose a risk to kids' wellbeing. Anthony from Mangrove Creek agreed, and added that the fact that almost everyone seems to have a portable internet device, carried and controlled in ever greater numbers by children, simply magnifies this problem. Drago and Linda, in Umina Beach, told me about the dilemma that even if a small number of children retain access to pornography on their mobile phones, they can still unfortunately show it to their friends. They wrote to me and they said, 'It's therefore nearly impossible for parents to protect their children.' It certainly may be increasingly difficult and challenging, but I certainly hope that it is not impossible. When it comes to the protection and care of our families, we need to do everything we can to support one another. So I am pleased to say that we are seeing an outstanding response from families and teachers on the Central Coast, who are working together to help tackle this issue.

In a few weeks' time, a cyber awareness forum is being held at the Mingara Recreation Club at Tumbi Umbi. The forum will ask and try to answer a number of key questions: Firstly, do you know what your children are up to? Secondly, do you know the consequences of online actions? And, thirdly, do you know how to protect your children? The event is being run by the Central Coast Council of P&Cs, alongside NSW Police Central Coast and with representatives from the New South Wales Department of Education. It will take place on 7 June from 7 to 9 pm, and it is designed just for parents, not for children. I am advised that there are already more than 100 people registered, and that the event has been well publicised in local publications such as the Central CoastExpress Advocate. The Express, in fact, reported recently about fears of an ingrained culture of sexting from children as young as 10, with police, principals and parents saying they have been shocked by the scale of the problem in schools and in sporting clubs around our local region.

The event organiser is Sharryn Brownlee, president of the Central Coast Council of P&Cs. Sharryn said that, while these reports are alarming, the forum is not about frightening parents, or getting into detail about the effectiveness of filters or the explicit nature of the content. Instead, the focus of the forum will be around empowering parents and helping them with methods of protection, as well as getting a better understanding of how a digital footprint can later fall into the wrong hands. Put simply, children can sometimes be just one click away from taking a video clip that is later distributed worldwide—and it can never be retrieved.

This is also where the government can play a role in assisting with effective resources and support. They include the Stay Smart Online website, the online portal of the eSafety Commissioner, and the iParent website. These websites are clear, up to date, and detailed, and they provide resources for victims, families, and community leaders alike. Along with telephone helplines and the outstanding work being done by our local police—Brisbane Water Local Area Command, in particular, do an outstanding job in our community—these are important resources that we should all be familiar with.

But the right response also includes moves like that which we saw over the weekend from the New South Wales coalition government to help stop revenge porn. The Berejiklian government announced tough new laws, where people who record or share intimate images without consent can be jailed for up to three years and fined as much as $11,000. The state's Crimes Amendment (Intimate Images) Bill 2017 will make it an offence to intentionally record or distribute an intimate image of a person without their consent.

In closing, can I recognise the people in our communities who are personally impacted by this issue, and acknowledge the hurt and pain it can so easily cause. May I also thank every parent, teacher, community leader, police officer and anyone else who is working to keep our children safe. I commend this motion to the House.

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

I thank the member for Petrie for this very important motion. As members will know, I have been working in cybersafety for many years, and I have delivered hundreds of presentations in schools and community groups and more broadly. I say to the member for Petrie that this is a very real issue, because I can give you the evidence from the children themselves, which many others may struggle with. One of the things I would say to parents is: why not have a look at your children's Google history. You can even google certain words yourself—certain anatomical words, perhaps—and see what you can come up with, and see how many of those sites actually ask a question about your age or what you can have access to. I also know that some of the young children whom I speak to who are looking at pornographic material are actually choosing to 'like' some of the items on there, and, out of those sites, it is not unusual for the site to harvest their name and attach it to that particular product. I met lots and lots of teachers and thousands of kids. One teacher of year 8 students—they were in year 8 when they came into that school—told me about three years ago that 100 per cent of her year 8 students had actually accessed serious pornography before entering her school. That was the age. This gives these young people a very distorted view of relationships and sexual relationships.

Of course, I have also had to deal with the issues around physical and psychological damage that go with learning about sex from a pornographic site. I asked the parents, when I had the parent sessions: 'Where are your children right now? Who are they with? What are they doing?' Generally, they can answer me, and they answer me very well. Then I ask them, 'When they're online, can you answer those same three questions—where are they, what are they doing and who are they with?' I ask that because they are with someone, they are doing things and they are somewhere. Those are very, very simple questions that I ask parents. I do know, from those young people, that they are allowed to have their devices in their rooms 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Often, there is unlimited access for those young people. I also know and warn parents about that secret calculator which is like a vault. Depending on how much is stored in that vault, you may find some very interesting information and photos in it.

Of course, it is very important for parents to communicate with their children before the first device is given to them. The family needs to have a discussion as a family about these devices and ask: 'What are the safety issues and the security issues? How are we going to use it as a family? What rules are we going to put in place for each other?' We all need to work with these rules in our families, and we all need to know the security strengths and weaknesses and some of the things that we might come in contact with. The young kids need to know how to stay in control. I ask them to actually help every other generation. I ask them whether they know more about being online and devices than their parents, their grandparents and their younger siblings, and the answer is, yes, they do. So I say they are a key part of the answer. They are fantastic with technology, and they do need to stay in control. There are some very good programs out there. Young kids do need to stay in control in this space.

I looked at an article—this is just some of the evidence—from 2015 in a local The Sunday Times. The article says that, on average, children are 11 when they are first exposed to online pornography and that there are over 430 million porn related search items online. So your chances of bringing one up are very real, and the chances also are for children. Most of the popular sites stream hundreds of thousands of short porn clips under explicit pornographic categories. They are very easy to find. Users can even upload their own material onto these sites. If you go into the gonzo porn space, you will find that there is no actual pretence of a plot required. They use descriptors such as '18 and abused', 'cute girl ruined' or 'cute girl destroyed'. We need to talk about violence against women and what this amounts to. These contain material that shows everything from violation, humiliation to degradation of women—and that is just a start. (Extension of time granted) I saw the research as well that was quoted from the US that showed that 88 per cent of some popular porn contains physical violence and 49 per cent shows verbal aggression, with women always the target.

Teenagers as young as 15 and young women are seeking treatment. I have spoken to some GPs as to what is actually happening, because these young people are learning about sex from a pornography site. There are real physical risks in this, and there is an increase in this type of behaviour. I saw a Netflix documentary that was promoted called Hot Girls Wanted. International pornography sites do not actually ask for age verification. A child can claim to be over 18, and most of those sites do not even have the capacity to check their age.

So it is out there. It is there for children. It is just a click or the wrong word away. Sometimes it is just kids being kids, yet they have access to this material. I looked at that secret calculator, that vault app, and it allows for storage of items in a hidden folder. It is disguised as a calculator, and it can be used to store inappropriate content. Parents need to be aware and to block these particular apps. I think parents need to install filters and software onto computers to block explicit adult sites.

There is a real need to communicate with your children to reinforce good relationships. The Choose Respect program works very well, as do other programs around respectful relationships. I would encourage every parent to have a look at iParent and check the ThinkUKnow website. There is some wonderful stuff on there for parents. I encourage them to communicate constantly with their children. The iParent portal says there are seven ways to make your home cybersafe, and I would encourage every parent to look at those and block, delete, keep the content and report it. Young people need to stay in control online, as do parents. I encourage every parent to have that discussion with their children as early as possible before the first device is given.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for this debate has concluded. The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day the next sitting.