Speech to the Carly Ryan Foundation ‘Thread’ App Launch

Minister Rankine, my federal parliamentary colleague Senator Nick Xenophon, of course Sonia Ryan the inspirational director of the Carly Ryan Foundation, other distinguished guests and ladies and gentlemen, I am very pleased to be here at the launch of “Thread” – this exciting new app which will be an important way for children and young adults to keep connected and keep safe.

If you go to their website, you find that the vision of Carly Ryan Foundation is ‘to create a positive experience online for all children, teens and young adults.’

I would like to reflect on that for a moment.

What happened to Carly is every parent’s worst nightmare –falling victim to a grubby predator who used the internet to groom her.

It would be the most natural and understandable thing in the world for Sonia, as Carly’s mum, to react with fury against the internet and social media.

But Sonia has taken a very different approach.

The vision that the Carly Ryan Foundation is following is to “create a positive experience online.”

For those of us working in the field of children’s online safety, there is a danger to guard against – the danger that in working to safeguard children against the dangers they face online, we lose track of the enormous benefits which the internet brings.

Today’s children are better informed, better able to express their creativity, and better with technology than any previous generation.

The internet is a central part of their childhood and it will be central to their lives.

Children use the internet in its many aspects including social media for the same reason that adults do – it enriches and improves our lives, it stimulates and informs and entertains and educates us, it helps us act upon that most basic and profound human instinct, to build and maintain connections with other people.

The work of the Carly Ryan Foundation is not designed to stigmatise or discredit the internet or to create panic in the minds of parents.

Rather, it is intended to build confidence in the use of this vital resource – including through ensuring children have a realistic understanding that sometimes the internet can expose them to danger, and through helping to give them the tools to protect themselves.

But it is no accident that the vision is expressed as a strongly positive one.

I have got to know Sonia Ryan through her work on the federal Government’s Online Safety Consultative Working Group, where she has made a sustained and effective contribution.

Let me express my thanks to Sonia – for the work you do there, for the broader work you do in the community to educate children about staying safe online, and for what you have done to honour the memory of your daughter and to express your continuing love for her.

The app that the Carly Ryan Foundation has developed, “Thread”, is a highly practical tool that children and young adults can use – helping to leverage the power of the internet to keep them connected and keep them safe.

I know that other speakers are going to have more to say about ‘Thread’ and how it works.  Let me simply add that I think it is a smart idea and I am confident it will make a difference. 

Sonia briefed me on the app late last year and explained to me the support she has received from Google, Kojo and the South Australian Government – and I want to congratulate all of these organisations for getting behind the Carly Ryan Foundation.

In my work as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications in the Abbott Government, I am leading our work at the federal level to enhance online safety for children.

There are a number of community organisations of capacity and goodwill doing important work in this space – with the Carly Ryan Foundation very much at the forefront. 

Let me also acknowledge the clear focus of state governments including the SA Government.

I have been struck by the goodwill and support from all sides of politics in this vitally important area – with Senator Xenophon for example speaking out on these issues.

There is widespread recognition, I think, that over the past decade we have seen some fundamental changes to how our society works.

Ten years ago social media barely existed – today it is pervasive in the lives of Australian children.   If you go into a class of thirteen year olds, as I have done many times around Australia, and ask for a show of hands for who is on Facebook, just about every hand goes up.

Another fundamental change is that, ten years ago, most people got internet access over a desktop or laptop computer.  Today, smart phones and tablets are extremely common – amongst children and adults. More than three quarters of Australian now use their smartphone to access the internet – relegating the laptop to second place – while close to 50% of Australians use a tablet to get online.[1]

Amongst young people, the most recent data shows that 69% of teens with a mobile phone have a smartphone, and that 56% of teens use their mobile to get online.[2]

That means that many, many children are using these devices to access the internet in circumstances where they are not under adult supervision. 

As one indication of the kinds of issues we now face, research we commissioned last year found that 20 per cent of Australians aged 8–17 are estimated to be cyberbullied in a twelve month period.

These are some of the reasons why the Abbott Government has recently introduced the Enhancing Online Safety for Children Bill into Parliament.

This follows intense policy work – and engagement with many organisations working in the field including the Carly Ryan Foundation.

This Bill will establish a new statutory office, the Children’s e-Safety Commissioner – who will take a national leadership role in online safety for children.

The Bill establishes a complaints system, backed by legislation, to get material targeted at and harmful to an Australian child, down quickly from large social media sites.

We will provide funding of $7.5 million for schools to access online safety programmes, of the kind delivered by organisations like the Carly Ryan Foundation.

So there is a lot of work going on to make children safer online – and with its Thread app and its other work the Carly Ryan Foundation is leading the way.

Let me conclude by congratulating – and thanking - Sonya Ryan and everyone at the Carly Ryan Foundation for their tireless advocacy for online safety.

I have no doubt that ‘Thread’ app will make a difference – in helping to keep Aussie kids safe online – and I am very pleased to be part of its launch today.

[1] EY ‘Digital Australia: State of the Nation 2014’ p15

[2] ACMA, ‘Aussie Teens Online’ http://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/aussie-teens-online