Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When we take our kids to the playground or to the supermarket or walk them to school we are constantly supervising them. Of course we are. Our job as parents is to keep them away from home. We keep them safe. If a stranger approaches them, we are there to step in between them and our kid. However, in today's world—particularly in the last 18 months, with the COVID environment and lockdowns and the like—our kids are spending more time away from the physical playground and more time online, and their interactions online are increasing. This is a dangerous playground. It is unlike the real world, the physical world; we can't be there to stand in between our kids and strangers. Predators know this, and they explore every avenue they can to access and groom our kids. As a dad, frankly, I find it terrifying. It keeps me up at night—as I'm sure it does other parents.

A dad recently came to me in my electorate and spoke to me about his 10-year-old son. His son had been on his school-mandated iPad and, with a few errant clicks, found his way onto a hardcore porn site. This is a good dad. He supervises his kid. But this accident happened all too quickly, and we know how damaging it can be when children who are still developing access this kind of material.

Another parent recently posted to our online community Facebook page. He had taken the time to review the chats of his young son, who he thought was playing games on Facebook with his friends. When he reviewed the chats that were part of this game, what he saw was not conversations among friends but random strangers asking escalating grooming questions, starting with: 'Do you like boys or girls or both?' This was a question asked of a very young boy. A mother has come up to me and spoken about how her daughter is a shell of the confident, vibrant young person that she once was because of the vile abuse she has copped online from innocent photos.

I'm all for parental responsibility; it is the cornerstone of our society, and nobody wants to see that overtaken. But a parent can't be there to monitor every keystroke and we can't remove technology from our kids lives entirely. So how do we keep them safe? In the real world, you can't walk into a strip club without someone checking your ID to make sure you are 18. Parents can access control over who is in the room with their kids. We have laws to ensure that, if someone publishes abuse about somebody in print, there would be legal recourse. Yet on the wild west of the internet there are no such restrictions. It is not because they can't be; it is because they haven't been implemented yet. The solutions aren't easy, but that's all the more reason to take action now rather than kicking the can down the road.

Research shows that, if a child accesses pornography at a young age, when they are still developing, it has extensive negative impacts on the kid. It can lead to poor mental health, increased levels of sexual aggression and violence, a heightened risk of sexual abuse and a greater chance of engaging in risky behaviours. This was the evidence we on the social and legal affairs committee heard when we undertook a review of age verification. This is far more prevalent than you might think. One-third of school students aged eight or under have attempted to access online pornography in the last six months. It's incredible.

One thing we can do—and we can do it now—is implement online age verification so that the rules that stop you from getting into a strip club if you are under 18 will also apply online. Then a young kid won't be able to get onto a pornography site with a few errant clicks; you will have to prove your age. It's not a silver bullet, but it will be there as a level of protection for our kids and particularly to stop them doing something that they don't intend to do or that they are being led to by other people.

I have started a petition on my Facebook page and other mechanisms. I'm asking everybody to share it, sign it, join it and be part of the community groundswell that shows government that this needs to be implemented right now—that we need online age verification implemented right now. It's not easy, but that's more the reason to do it than just to kick the can down the road.