Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Children of the current generation have had lives interrupted. Gen-Z endured the isolation of the pandemic lockdowns and became involuntary pioneers of en masse online schooling. Big tech performed a crucial role in keeping our children's education going, but it also had the undesirable side effect of weaving its way into every aspect of our children's lives.

The experiences of children during the pandemic were not identical. For some, connecting with new people online was a positive experience, but too many were bullied, groomed or traumatised by adults and anonymous peers. While children from disadvantaged backgrounds struggled with a lack of technology during lockdowns, those with access became more connected than ever—but, in some cases, dangerously so. Kids were unsupervised in the digital playground during COVID, with no guardrails and no fences around the schoolyard. Things had to happen quickly and, in their haste, boundaries became porous or even non-existent. We were doing the best we could to keep some routine in our children's lives, but we unwittingly traded off their privacy. The apps that allowed them to learn at home not only knew how they performed academically but also harvested information about their friendship groups; their sexuality; the movies, music and clothing they liked; and their hopes, fears and insecurities. Big tech has little interest in retreating from its position within the lives of our young people. The data harvesting, on a massive scale, is too delicious to give up. When you think about it, do social media companies ever act altruistically? Do they see themselves as having a duty of care to their users, especially their young users under 18?

There is a clear demand in the community to understand and address the experiences of online bullying and harassment and mental health impacts. Meanwhile, though, children have access to violent, extreme forms of pornography and misogynistic content that is detrimental to their mental wellbeing, fuelling harmful attitudes about women and girls. In addition to our legitimate concerns about the mental health of our children, they're being exposed to unregulated dirty products sneaking through social media that couldn't be treated and promoted in the same way through mainstream paths.

There are some who rail against any restrictions on access to social media, but I don't accept the simplistic, sinister binary that either we have free speech or we have safe kids. We've successfully introduced measures to keep our children mentally and physically safe without encroaching on the liberty of others. We accept the need for movie ratings and know instantly what G, PG, M or R means. There are rules around advertising junk food, gambling and what we consider adult content during children's television time. We've introduced laws to stop our children getting nicotine vapes sold to them at shops, and we have laws for bike helmets, swimming pool fences and child car seats and safety standards for a range of other products to keep children safe in the event of an accident.

The content being dished up to our children online, on the internet, is no accident. I'm proud to be part of a government introducing a suite of online measures to keep our children safe. I acknowledge the work of the Prime Minister and other colleagues, including the Attorney-General, Minister Rishworth and Minister Rowland, in bringing a number of initiatives to fruition. These measures include a pilot of age assurance technology to protect children from harmful content like pornography and other age restricted online services. The outcomes of that pilot will inform the existing work of Australia's eSafety Commissioner under the Online Safety Act, including through the development of industry codes and standards. The government will also introduce legislation to make it clear that creating and sharing sexually explicit material without content using technology like artificial intelligence will be subject to serious criminal penalties. The Albanese government is taking action.

We as individual parents and citizens can be part of the broader solution. We have a chance to lead by example by making it our business to be media literate. We can start with a simple statement that there are many opinions but only one set of facts. We can still respect people's right to their own opinion, but we must be clear that they are not entitled to their own facts. We must understand the information, disinformation and misinformation our children are exposed to if we are to guide them towards news sources they can trust. It is within our control to educate ourselves, and encourage our children to educate themselves, to spot fake news.

Our children are the first generation to live their lives online. There's no going back to the pre-mobile-phone, pre-iPad and pre-internet days, but we cannot allow the digital world to dictate the way our kids interact and compare themselves to each other or to set false expectations for their lives or manipulate their perception of reality. We need to get tech working for our kids and not the other way around.

Question agreed to.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 13:00