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Sydney Morning Herald Op-Ed: Paul Fletcher calls on MPs to pass his online safety bill
As the world marks ‘Safer Internet Day’ this week under the banner of ‘Let's create a better internet together’, the Abbott Government is preparing to debate the ‘Enhancing Online Safety for Children Bill’ in Parliament.
The case for this legislation is strong.
One in five young Australians aged 8 to 17 has experienced cyberbullying, according to research from a consortium led by UNSW’s Social Policy Research Centre.
Nearly three quarters of Australian schools have reported incidents of cyber-bullying, and the researchers found that the worst affected age group is children from 10 to 15.
An estimated 463,000 young Australians aged 8 to 17 were victims of cyberbullying in the year the research was conducted. There was an average of 22 cyberbullying complaints in secondary schools in that same timeframe.
Cyberbullying can be serious, according to the research, and its consequences can be more far-reaching than bullying in the schoolyard. If you are bullied online, the humiliation is worse because you know lots of people can be watching online.
On a concerning note for both parents and their children, the research found that most instances of cyberbullying occurred on social media – and highlighted the difficulty in having social media sites respond to requests to remove harmful material.
This is an important finding, particularly given how pervasive social media is in the lives of Australian children – something which barely existed a decade ago.
If you go into a class of children aged between twelve and fifteen, as I have done many times, and ask who is on Facebook or the other big social media services, just about every hand goes up.
Similarly, smartphones didn’t exist when today’s high school students were born. In 2005 most people accessed the internet over a desktop or laptop computer, while today more than three quarters of Australians now use their smartphone to access the internet.
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.
That means that many children are using these devices to access the internet in circumstances where they are not under adult supervision – another factor which increases concern about the risks children face online.
In developing our election policy to enhance online safety for children, the Coalition consulted extensively with parents, teachers, law enforcement agencies and child welfare groups.
In line with our policy, the legislation being debated this week will establish the Children’s e-Safety Commissioner as an independent statutory office to take a national leadership role in online safety for children.
The Bill will create an effective complaints system to get cyberbullying material targeted at and harmful to an Australian child, down quickly from large social media sites.
The Commissioner will have two sets of powers it can use in responding to a complaint concerning cyberbullying material. First, the Commissioner will have the power to issue a notice to a large social media service requiring it to remove the material.
Second, the Commissioner will have the power to issue a notice to the person who posted the material requiring the person to remove the material, refrain from posting the material or apologise for posting the material.
The Government has also committed $7.5 million for schools to access certified online safety programmes.
Safer Internet Day recognises that while the internet offers enormous benefits for children and young people, it is not without its dangers.
Thanks to the internet, today’s children are better informed, better able to express their creativity, and better with technology than any previous generation – but they also face some dangers that previous generations of children did not.
One of the dangers children face, and one which has impacted too many Australian children already, is cyberbullying.
So it is fitting that as the world marks Safer Internet Day the Australian Parliament will debate the Enhancing Online Safety for Children Bill.
I call on all of my Parliamentary colleagues to support these measures.
The internet offers remarkable benefits to Australian children – but also exposes them to new dangers.
The measures in this Bill will bring a better and more rapid response to these dangers – so Australian children can best enjoy the benefits the internet brings.
This article was first published by the Sydney Morning Herald, 10 February 2015
