David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

on indulgenceI rise in support of the remarks of the Minister for Communications. This issue of the safety of Australian children online on social media is one of the defining issues of our era. It is of titanic significance to our community. What we have seen in recent years, in the impacts on the mental health of Australian children of social media, has been absolutely appalling. The social media companies for too long have abrogated their responsibility to care about Australian children. When we look at the data on the mental health of Australian children, especially girls, we see devastating impacts.

We welcome this legislation being put forward.

The Leader of the Opposition committed the coalition to a very similar policy back in June, and we look forward to working constructively on this legislation, with a view to seeing it pass through the parliament next week.

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