Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I note the comments from the member for Gellibrand. I hold strong views around the incapacity to drive underground the sometimes terrible things that people think and the sometimes terrible things that people say. The minute that you try to regulate in this space, you tend to drive bad thoughts, bad people and bad comments underground. Fundamentally, I do believe that. But, in this instance, when we are dealing with our most precious asset, when we are dealing with the future, when we are dealing with our children, I regrettably say that I do not think we have a choice and that all of us must do everything we can to protect children in any way we can.

The government have delivered on a commitment that we went to the election with. We have engaged and consulted very broadly on this issue through public consultations. More than 80 submissions were received from a range of sectors from January 2014 on. So it has been a comprehensive process—as it should be because perhaps there is nothing more important than our children. Consultation has occurred with community organisations; industry; education bodies, which naturally enough are particularly interested in these issues; government and legal representations; academics; and members of the public. The government have engaged properly with the community and consulted widely in the formation of this genuine attempt to keep children safer online. I do notice that there are some young people up in the gallery today. I remind them that this is about them. This is about keeping them and their friends safer online.

The Enhancing Online Safety for Children Bill 2014 is an important bill before the House today. It contains a number of measures to enhance online safety for children and it was an election commitment by the government. It includes establishing the Children's e-Safety Commissioner and setting out the commissioner's functions and powers, and a mechanism to create an effective complaints system for harmful cyberbullying material targeted at Australian children. The commissioner will have two sets of powers it can use in responding to a complaint. These include the power to issue a notice to a large social media service, requiring it to remove the particular material; and the power to use a notice to the person who posted the material, requiring the person to remove the material, refrain from posting the material or apologising for posting the material. The measures in this bill are planned to bring a better and more rapid response to the dangers of cyberbullying and to keep Australian, and indeed Tasmanian children, safer online.

I have two boys. I have one nearly 16 years old and one nearly 13 years old. I look back on my eldest son and think of the period around year 6 when the use of deodorant could kill a small farm animal at a hundred yards! That was one phase. More recently it has been all about the hair. The hair seems to take on a life of its own. The point I make is about body image and the way that we appear. I guess it is no different to any of us. We all want to be respected. We all want to be loved. We all want to be liked. The phenomenon that truly is social media has taken this to another level. Talking about multitasking, my wife often talks about my incapacity to multitask—I do not suppose I am unique in that instance!

I look at my boys and I see that, whether it is with the television, the iPad, the phone or the little bit of conversation that we can throw in there, these young people truly are multi-tasking.

I do not think we can kid ourselves that we can eradicate bullying. I do not think that we can kid ourselves, at all, that we can eradicate bullying, but damn me if we should not be doing everything we can and everything within our power to make our young people safe. We want to see resilient, strong, confident young people, who understand that bullying behaviour is more a reflection on the bully than it is on the people they are trying to bully. Social media is real; we all use it. I know for young people, particularly my 15-year-old, life is influenced by the number of likes they get for a post. They feel that that is an important thing; I understand that. When it is a photograph of your sixpack—and it has been a while, Deputy Speaker!—this is important!

In the context of this debate—and we appreciate the other opposition's support of this legislation—we should never forget that bullying has been around since Adam was a boy, and we should not ignore all the other types of bullying that go on, not only with young people, but in workplaces and sometimes at home, often closer than we might dare to imagine.

The internet and social media offer a forum for human interaction which brings great social benefits, but sometimes things go wrong online, as they do offline. When this happens, the internet and social media, in particular, can make bullying behaviours more dangerous to the children who become the victims. The posting of humiliating or harmful photos, videos or rumours is often exacerbated by other social media features such as comments, shares, or likes, which can rapidly promote and spread content which is damaging for the individual involved. It can have serious effects such as anxiety, depression, behavioural problems and even suicidal thoughts. I note the presence of the Minister for Health in the chamber at the moment. Nothing is more important than mental health; it is a particular interest of mine. We all have physical predispositions that we can do nothing to control, but the things that we are talking about here today could be the triggers that may well exacerbate some of those predispositions.

I come back to the point that my wife and I try to bring our boys up as confident—though not overly confident—capable young people who have respect for others and understand that certain actions, whilst they might seem to be trivial or harmless, can have a terrible impact on friends and colleagues.

Research shows that one in five Australian children have been, or is, a victim of cyberbullying. Last year, the University of New South Wales Social Policy Research Centre found that, in its best estimate, over a 12-month period 20 per cent of Australian children between the ages of eight and 17 had experienced some kind of online cyberbullying. Think about those figures. That is one in five young people between the ages of eight and 17 experiencing some form of online bullying. Cyber bullying is most common in the ages 10 and 15 years, which makes sense because this is a vulnerable period of someone's life. It does tend to diminish in the 16 to 17 age bracket. These figures mean that the estimated number of children and young people who have been victims of cyber bullying in 2013 was 463,000, with about 350,000 of them aged between 10 and 15 years old.

Children can be cruel—that is no news to anybody. Human beings can be cruel. A few moments ago I was speaking to Victoria Harrison, principal of the Cressy District High School—which is in my electorate of Lyons in northern Tasmania—to get her perspective on this discussion. This area is incorporated into their health education part of their curriculum. Within each year group they have clear expectations about the way devices are used. There is a code of conduct for the use of electronic devices, which includes penalties for any sort of behaviour that is considered inappropriate, such as the use of Facebook and other social media sites in a way that would bring the school into disrepute.

I guess if I were going to give one message, though, to the young people that are just leaving the gallery upstairs, it would be that you can always turn off your device. You can always turn off your device, and nobody will ever know. You can block somebody that is impacting on you in a negative way. But, most of all, there are adults everywhere, whether they be in your school, in your family—one would hope—or in the police forces. There are good people. We would strongly encourage young people that are exposed to this sort of behaviour to contact responsible adults.

The bill being debated today contains a number of enforcement provisions so that, if a person fails to comply with a requirement under an end user notice, the Children's e-Safety Commissioner will be able to, firstly, issue a formal warning. If a provider of social media fails to comply with a social media service notice, they will be liable to pay a penalty of 100 penalty units—in this case, those units being roughly $17,000—for each day in which the service provider fails to respond. Those are not insignificant penalties. The commissioner will be able to go to court to obtain an injunction to ensure compliance.

The Children's e-Safety Commissioner will be established as an independent authority within the Australian Communications and Media Authority and will take a national leadership role in online safety for children.

In the short time that I have left, I will just come back to—and I note the comments of the member for Gellibrand in respect of—red tape. This government has delivered on reducing red tape in small business particularly and right across our economy: over $2 billion worth of savings in red tape, which makes it easier for business to get on with business. But in this instance regulation is required. Our children are our most important asset, and we should do everything within our power—it may not be a perfect solution, but it is a first step, and we should do everything in our power—to make them safe.

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