Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Child Protection and the Prevention of Family Violence) Share this | Hansard source

Still on the theme of risk to our children: one year ago I stood in this chamber to help raise alarm at the rising rate of sextortion. I talked about a 14-year-old Adelaide boy who received this silent but potentially deadly message:

Hey this is the end of your life. I am sending your nudes to the world now.

Chilling—but there was much more. Thankfully his parents were aware of sextortion and acted immediately, seeking help from the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation. Their quick action averted a family catastrophe. Not everyone, though, has been that fortunate. Suicide is the leading cause of death for males under 30. Online abuse is helping to drive that.

Twelve months ago there had been a hundredfold increase in reports of sextortion crimes. It has now quadrupled, to a 400-fold increase. Teenage boys make up the vast majority of victims. A lack of parental knowledge of social media risk can be and has been catastrophic. A Victorian father recently shared with me his heartbreaking story of finding out about sextortion too late for his now deceased son. In government, we would double the size of the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation because in 2022-2023 it received more than 40,000 reports of child exploitation—and Australians must keep reporting it.

Now we see legislation to combat sextortion and deepfake material. Tightening age verification rules for social media giants could have been done last year when the coalition ramped up campaigning for it amid escalation and growing evidence of risk. The PM is finally now supportive of age verification as a solution posed by opposition leader Peter Dutton to this heinous criminal activity that targets our Australian children from anywhere.