David Moncrieff (Hughes, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to protect young Australians from harmful and abusive technology?

Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hughes for the question—the best member for Hughes in 30 years. The Albanese government is taking world-leading action to reduce online harms experienced by young Australians, including passing historic legislation to delay access to social media until the age of 16. Today, I announce the next step in that mission: to restrict access to nudification and undetectable online stalking tools. There is a place for AI and legitimate tracking technology in Australia. But the problem facing Australians is that technology has no moral compass. Its capacity for good or for bad depends on who is using it. The rockets that launched the Apollo missions to the moon were the same rockets designed to deliver a nuclear weapon. While AI has the power to move Australia forward, there is no place in our country for apps and technologies that are used solely to abuse, humiliate and harm people, especially our children.

One child in every classroom in Australia has been the victim of deepfake abuse. Four out of five reported cases involve young girls. In one Melbourne case, investigators found 50 female students at a single high school were the victims of sexually explicit deepfakes. And the scale of harm is escalating, with reports to eSafety from people under the age of 18 doubling in the past 18 months. Today, I heard from a mum, Emma, whose daughter, Tilly, had a fake naked photo shared by schoolkids on the bus. Between 10 past three and 6 pm, Emma's mum estimates that almost 3,000 kids had seen this fake naked photo, and, that night, Tilly attempted to take her own life. These harms are too great and too urgent for us not to act. While there are federal and state laws against the publishing and distributing of sexualised non-consensual deepfakes and AI generated child sexual abuse material, slimy predators are slipping through the cracks. The current landscape relies too heavily on victims reporting these issues once the harm has occurred. We have to move the burden of reporting from the shoulders of victims and stop the harm at the source. We have to hold big tech accountable for the technology they are delivering. These apps are only designed to abuse, to bully, to humiliate and to harass, and we are determined to restrict them because, while the image might be fake, the abuse is real.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

on indulgence—I will just acknowledge some of the parents who I met with today, who are in the gallery. They are parents who, amid their grief and loss, have found the strength to work towards helping other Australians, particularly young people coming through. To Wayne Holdsworth, thank you for sharing your story about your son, Mac. To Emma Mason, thank you for sharing your story about your daughter, Tilly. To Fiona Carusi and Jane Rowan, thank you for talking with me about your daughters and the journey you are on together with them. Your courage and your candour is a powerful reminder of why it's so important for not just the government but the whole parliament to act to keep Australians safe online. Your courage in speaking about such personal stories really is changing future lives for the better. I thank you and acknowledge you.