Dana Wortley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I present an interim report of the Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety, High-wire act, cyber-safety and the young. I seek leave to move a motion in relation to the report.

Leave granted.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

It has been an honour to chair the parliament's Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety and to be tabling this report today, which is the culmination of 13 months work. We know that cybersafety is a very important issue for all those who enter the online environment. It is my earnest wish that this report will make a difference and, as a result of the work carried out by the committee, ensure this environment is safer for all users but especially young Australians.

The committee consulted far and wide and heard evidence from Facebook, Yahoo, ninemsn, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Institute of Criminology, parent and teacher groups, education department representatives and leading academic experts. We conducted three roundtable hearings and seven public hearings, and, importantly, we listened to the concerns and views of young Australians—in fact, 33,751 young Australians. Two online surveys on cybersafety, one for 13- to 18-year-olds and one for 12-year-olds and under, were conducted. These young people not only completed the survey but also contributed more than 60,000 comments, many of which have been included in the report. In addition, the committee held face-to-face school forums and a Q&A style session where students told us exactly what they think. I take this opportunity to thank all of the thousands of young people who generously shared their stories and views both in our online surveys and in the forums. Their assistance was invaluable.

I can assure the Senate that we were astonished by the response to our 'Are you safe?' online survey—33,751 respondents represents the largest online survey conducted on cybersafety in Australia and one of the largest in the world. These surveys gave us unprecedented insight into the views of Australia's young people, their support networks, their cybersafety awareness and their online activities. The majority, 80.7 per cent of respondents were aged between 10 and 15 years. Survey results showed that 62.9 per cent of respondents aged 13 to 18 felt that more could be done to make the internet safer. Sixty per cent of those participating in the same age group believe that cyber-bullying is on the increase. Most of us in this chamber are what are known as digital immigrants. We have not grown up with technology. We have adapted to it and we have learnt it as required. This is in contrast to young Australian digital natives, the majority of whom have never known a world without the internet and feel they could not live happily without social networking sites or their mobile phone. To ignore this ignores the reality. Some statistics make this point clearly. In Australia, in March 2011, Facebook had nearly 11 million active users who had visited the site within the past 30 days. Over nine million users visit it every week and over seven million use it every day. There are more mobile phones in Australia than people. Seventy-eight per cent of households have computer access and 72 per cent have access to the internet.

Young Australians are growing up in a highly connected world. They use multiple media platforms for gaming, chat rooms, SMS and social media, and it is exciting for them. While many young Australians are aware of cybersafety and have incorporated it into their everyday activities, the federal government was sufficiently concerned about cybersafety to establish this committee in March 2010. The inquiry's terms of reference were sufficiently broad to enable online risks to be examined, including cyber-bullying, abuse of children online, exposure to illegal and inappropriate content, inappropriate social and health behaviours, identity theft and breaches of privacy.

This report focuses on how young people can be empowered to connect to the internet and use technologies with confidence, knowing that they can use them safely, ethically and with full awareness of the risks and benefits. It recognises that, while online communication is exciting and simple, there are potential risks that young people and parents alike must learn to recognise and address. From our consultations it is clear that younger generations hold the key to their own online safety and that their knowledge and risk management strategies are frequently undervalued. Young Australians want to be in control of their own experiences in the online environment through better education, knowledge and skills, and they want cybersafety messages to be age-appropriate and to value their existing knowledge. This is what they told us. At the same time, they told us they want significant adults in their lives, such as parents, carers and teachers, to be better informed about the online world so that they can turn to them when difficult issues arise. Also, the media needs to be educated on issues of cybersafety.

The online environment is an integral part of modern economic and social activities and it is a vast resource of education, informa­tion, communication and entertainment. The evolution of new technologies is diversifying the ways in which especially young Aust­ralians connect with each other and the world. For most users, most of the time, their online experiences are positive. It is the committee's hope that its recommendations will ensure that the online environment will become even safer and that potential dangers are reduced. As adults we need to appreciate the wonder of these new technologies while ensuring young Australians are safe from potential risks. The risks may come when young internet users make no distinction between new media and their offline relationships. It is the case that some children are vulnerable both offline and online, so it is essential that we are alert to the risks as well as the great benefits of the digital economy.

The breadth and depth of material in the submissions we received was astounding and the evidence given by witnesses was invaluable to the committee. On behalf of all the other members of the committee, I would like to thank the witnesses for their attendance and for submitting themselves to our questions. We have made 32 recommendations which we believe would go a considerable way to improving cyber­safety for Australia's young people if they are adopted.

Parents and carers have ultimate responsibility for educating and protecting their children, including in the online environment. The role that they play in cybersafety education is vital and, while many resources are available, it is not always clear where they can be found. We are concerned to assist those parents and carers whose familiarity with technology is not great and we have made recommendations that may assist this group. A number of other recommendations seek to strengthen the position of schools and teachers in dealing with cyber-bullying and other online abuses, including cyber-bullying of teachers themselves. Other important recom­mendations deal with the establishment of a greater degree of cross-jurisdictional cooperation between the various regulatory and law enforcement agencies.

In closing, I would like to express my thanks to my colleagues on the committee and the deputy chair in the other place, Mr Alex Hawke MP. I also thank my staff, particularly Kyle and Joan. Finally, to the secretariat: James Catchpole, Cheryl Scarlett, Lauren Wilson and Patrick Regan, I sincerely thank you for your support, expertise and dedication, and for all of the extra hours you put into this report. The ongoing work of this committee is important in that the benefits of the online environment will be maximised while potential risks to individuals will be reduced. I commend report to the Senate.