Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I t hank the chair of our committee for those earlier comments . They are correct : whilst Labor is not making a dissenting report, we wish to add some additional comments to the committee's work. As deputy chair of the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs , I acknowledge the strong bipartisan support there is in this place for keeping children and young people safe online. Labor members of the committee support work to protect children and young people from harmful e ffects of online pornography and gambling. These harms are real and cause a great level of concern in our community.

Labor members of the committee understand that we live in an era where technology e volves rapidly and where many children have greater facility with technology than their parents and carers. In this environment, a holistic, multi faceted and layered approach to protecting children and young people online is an ongoing necessity. Such an approach includes adult supervision ; technological access prevention measures ; and the education of children and adults alike. A multilayered approach is necessary because the fact is that there is no control mechanism that is 100 per cent effective at all times.

Labor members of the committee acknowledge that there is no silver bullet for addressing online harm. We appreciate that age verification should not be seen as a panacea. We understand that age verification is still a nascent field and we recognise that further review and research is needed if age verification is ever to be successfully implemented or provide a workable solution. But it is imperative that we explore and do our best to develop potential measures for keeping kids safe online. That is why Labor members of the committee support the development of a road map for the implementation of age verification technology as well as the legislative framework that would support it, subject to further research and review.

Labor's position is consistent with the Australian government's eSafety Commissioner. In a 9 December 2019 blog , available on the website of the Office of the eSafety Commissioner, the commissioner states :

… eSafety has supported the implementation of age verification technology, as well as the legislative framework that would support it — subject to further research and review.

Labor members of the committee accept that without adequate research and review any new system might fail to address serious issues of safety, data security, privacy, and freedom of expression , and i t might well fail to win public trust or even be effective as a measure for keeping children safe online.

We note that after years of work and millions of pounds expended on its proposal to introduce age verification for online pornography, the UK government announced that it will not be proceeding with it . This demonstrates how complicated it is to get age verification right. Labor members of the committee regard further research and review to be intrinsic to recommendation No. 3 in this committee report, which recommends the development of a road map ; a program of consultation ; activities for awareness raising and education ; and recommendations for complementary measures.

I'd like to make a brief mention of the loo t boxes that the chair , the member for Fisher , referred to previously. The Labor members of the committee did note at the time that the terms of reference of thi s inquiry did not reference loot boxes and that the key stakeholders did not have an opportunity to provide written submissions or oral evidence to the inquiry in relation to loot boxes. Labor members of the committee consider, therefore, that any work on option s to restrict access to elements of computer and video games should be done now in consultation with industry and stakeholders.

In conclusion, the Labor members of the committee support the recommendations of this inquiry, and Labor will look closely at what the eSafety Commissioner can come up with to address this difficult but very important issue. We consider that, given the amount of work needed to inform the approach to age verification, it is also imperative that work on other initiatives to strengthen online safety is done in tandem. To that end, we thank submitters for providing suggestions for other measures and initiatives to improve online safety and we encourage the government to reclassify and release the report of the expert working group, convened by the eSafety Commissioner and participated in by industry, so the broad range of stakeholders committed to improving online safety may have the benefit of this work.

Finally, I too wish to acknowledge the work of the committee. I thank the chair for his very measured approach in the inquiry and certainly my thanks to the secretariat, as well as the many individuals and organisations that made submissions or appeared as witnesses before the inquiry. Thank you for your input, your engagement, your expertise and your advocacy on this very serious issue in our society.

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