Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I do thank the member for Reid for her question and of course for her long-standing interest in the subject of how we keep Australians safe online, drawing as she does on her deep professional and academic experience as a psychologist. Our government does have a very strong agenda when it comes to keeping Australians safe online, and, just this week, the Attorney-General has released an exposure draft of legislation which will further extend our comprehensive approach to keeping Australians safe online, particularly giving Australians confidence that when they're using digital platforms that their personal information is appropriately protected. The exposure draft of legislation that we have released will increase penalties for serious and repeated breaches of privacy online and, very importantly, requires the creation of a binding online privacy code for social media services, data brokers and other large online platforms. The intention here is to address the clear power imbalance between online platforms on the one hand and their users on the other, by giving Australians more control and more transparency about how their personal information is being handled.

In particular, the online privacy code will strengthen protections for children and other groups of vulnerable users. We are being very clear in our requirements on the social media platforms under the code. They will be required to take all reasonable steps to verify the age of users, take all reasonable steps to verify parental or guardian consent for children under the age of 16 years, and require that the handling of children's personal information on their platforms is fair and reasonable, with the best interests of the child being the primary consideration.

We welcome feedback on this exposure draft, but we're getting on with the job across a whole range of areas when it comes to keeping Australians safe online and protecting the privacy of Australians, both adults and children, online. These are amongst the many areas that the prevalence of the internet presents. I want to acknowledge the work of both the Attorney-General and the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention in this important work.

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