Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As previous speakers have outlined, the Enhancing Online Safety for Children Bill 2014 will enable the government to appoint a commissioner with the power to order large social media services and individuals to remove offensive material posted online. Under this bill, a Children's e-Safety Commissioner office will be set up to crack down on online bullying. Companies will face fines of up to $17,000 per day if material targeting children is not removed, and individuals could face legal action under existing criminal laws. Individuals could be reported to police by the commissioner if material continues to be posted online.

In essence, this bill builds on the good work that was started by the previous Labor government. For a long time, it has been acknowledged by people in this House that more work needs to be done to catch up with the digital age. It is true, as previous speakers have said, that the bullying that a child can face online can be just as harmful as the bullying that they face in the playground—hence the need for all governments and all people involved to speak up and act in this area.

Research from the University of New South Wales has found that roughly one in five children in Australia is reported to have been bullied online. It is an alarming statistic to think that one in five children has been subject to bullying online. As the chief executive of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation has said, there is no difference between somebody who is bullied online and somebody who faces bullying face to face. They are different methods but both can cause enormous harm.

The challenge with all bullying is giving children the confidence to speak up, whether it be face to face or online, and to be able to share what they have experienced with their parents, their peers, their teachers and other people in their environment. Whilst there are laws in every state and territory which cover all forms of bullying, this bill supports those laws for the digital age.

As I mentioned, this bill builds on the good work of the previous Labor government. The previous Labor government established a voluntary, non-binding protocol that was developed in response to recommendations to a 2011 parliamentary committee report on cybersafety. It was announced by the former Prime Minister that a new school education program would be rolled out to help combat cyberbullying.

I will just take a moment to highlight two local examples from my community where schools and students took up that challenge and were actively involved in tackling this issue. Josh Murdoch, who is a student from Castlemaine Secondary College, took a stand to say he was someone who was subjected to cyberbullying. The year 10 student amassed more than 400 votes in a government supported film competition, Back Me Up. The aim of the program is to eliminate cyberbullying. He made a short film called Stand Up! Don't Stand Down, which at the time was one of the top five people's choices. Josh said it was his personal aspect that he believed made the film so popular with his peers.

The 15-year-old said that he had been a victim of cyberbullying and wanted other victims to know that there was support. He said at the time he did not make the video to be popular but made the short film to highlight his experience and to encourage others to speak up. He said that people need to understand that they are not alone and that there is help to overcome the fears associated with cyberbullying. A quarter of Australian children report that they have been cyberbullied. Whether it be one in five or a quarter, whichever research you turn to, cyberbullying appears to be an ongoing problem in our school community.

Another school in our area that has been working quite hard to tackle cyberbullying is the Bendigo South East Secondary School. The Bendigo South East Secondary School was the first eSmart accredited school in Victoria, with an initiative that they introduced to tackle cyberbullying. The school's information technology coordinator, Jill Fitzgerald, said in an article to the Bendigo Advertiser that school representatives at the school council brought together teachers, students and parents to work out new policies on the use of computers. They made a code that they encouraged all students to be involved in. The program, which was developed in coordination with the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, will be rolled out to all schools with state funding. I seek leave to continue my remarks at another time.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

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