Viewed
The Australian: New watchdog for online bullying
by Fran Foo
AUSTRALIA’S new commissioner for children’s online safety will have a direct line to Facebook and Twitter to order them to act on cyber-bullying complaints.
Nearly a third of teenagers in Australia say they have been victims of online harassment.
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the commissioner would act“very quickly, ideally (in) hours” instead of days, to contact large social-media sites once a complaint was lodged.
The Coalition hopes to introduce legislation by the end of the year, with the e-safety commissioner selected early next year.
Under the new framework, users younger than 18 who feel harassed online should first notify the relevant websites, said Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Communications Paul Fletcher.
If the sites failed to act then they should immediately contact the commissioner, Mr Fletcher said, during a visit to Strathfield Girls High School in Sydney’s inner west yesterday.
“The e-safety commissioner will assess it, and if it is cyber-bullying material the commissioner will then go to the large social media sites and say ‘you need to take this down’,” he said.
“In all the consultations that we’ve done, the No 1 message that comes back is people say, ‘look there’s very nasty stuff about me online on this social media site and I don’t seem to be able to do anything about it’.’’
The commissioner will have the power to direct authors of harmful material aimed at children to remove the content or risk being reported to the authorities.
Complainants could still go directly to the police should they wish, Mr Fletcher said.
Karen Flanagan of Save the Children welcomed the news, saying any initiative that did more to protect children online was good.
