Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Duniam, for your question and your interest in the important area of online safety. It is particularly appropriate to receive this question today on what is Safer Internet Day, which is an international initiative acknowledged in more than 90 countries.

In November last year, along with the Minister for Women, Senator Cash, I was very pleased to announce the employment of Julie Inman Grant as the new Children's eSafety Commissioner. As colleagues would probably recall, that office was established in 2015 and operates an online cyberbullying complaints system, which has seen the commissioner and her predecessor work with large social media services to remove harmful cyberbullying material which is targeted at Australian children.

Research that has been conducted by the government disturbingly found that over a 12-month period as many as one in five Australian children aged between eight and 17 have experienced cyberbullying. I should also advise colleagues that the government has provided $7½ million in funding for the delivery of online safety education programs in schools. The government has also announced that it will introduce a bill this year to expand the general functions of the Children's eSafety Commissioner from online safety for children to online safety for all Australians. This really recognises the expanded role that the office has assumed over time, particularly in relation to issues of women's safety and domestic abuse being promulgated on online platforms. As a result, we will be renaming the office as the online eSafety Commissioner—(Time expired)