Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday was Safer Internet Day, a campaign to promote making the internet safer and better for everyone. This global campaign started in 2004 and has continued growing until it now covers 150 countries. Safer Internet Day seeks to highlight the various roles that everyone has in making the internet safer, whether it be children and young people, parents and carers, educators, politicians or the industry. During my time as the chair of the now disbanded joint and Senate select committees on cybersafety, these committees did important work investigating how the government could improve the regulatory environment for online safety as well as support users to have a positive, safe experience. But national regulation can only go so far, given the internet crosses national borders and the size and reach of the world's major technology companies. Given that so many online risks, such as cyberbullying, cyberstalking, grooming, trolling and scams, happen through social media, there is a particular responsibility for the social media giants to use their policies and practices to make the internet safer. It's sad to see that some are not living up to their responsibility.

I'd like to focus tonight on Instagram and their lack of action to stop practices such as child sexual abuse, grooming and the fetishisation of under-age girls through their platform. This is an issue that has been raised with me and other people in this place by Collective Shout, a grassroots movement against the objectification of women and the sexualisation of girls. Collective Shout has collected hundreds of examples of sexual and predatory comments made on the posts of under-age girls, some as young as seven. These include comments by adult men about girls' bodies, body parts and sex abuse acts they would like to carry out on the girls, and requests for nude images. Furthermore, sexualised images of children posted on Instagram, shared under the guise of child modelling, have been shared to paedophile forums where men discuss their sexual fantasies about children. I should probably offer a trigger warning about the rest of the content of this speech—it is very unpleasant.

These images include girls posing with arched backs or spread legs, side shots of girls with their backsides pushed out or with their lips parted as they stare into the camera. These are sexualised, adult poses. Young girls do not pose this way naturally. They are coached by adults to do it. While Instagram claims to be taking steps to ensure their platform is safe for children, when Collective Shout has reported some of this content Instagram responds that no community guidelines have been breached. Collective Shout has shared some examples of the comments posted, with the girls' photos blurred and their posts de-identified of course. I did offer a trigger warning, but I warn anyone listening that you may find some of these examples quite disgusting and even sickening. There was a request to a 13-year-old girl that she produce a nude calendar, and a comment on the photo of a nine-year-old girl in a bikini that her genitals needed licking. Some of the fantasy comments include 'Do you want big daddy?', 'I wonder if you taste as good as you look', and 'Who wants to have her as a daughter and what would you like to do with her? Tell me on DM'—DM being 'direct message', by the way. The comments actually get worse—they include fantasies about violent acts of sexual abuse against girls—but I'm going to stop there because I really don't want to offend anyone who is as outraged as I am. A senator stated earlier today that my motion on Safer Internet Day was airy-fairy. I ask that senator: do you still think my motion was airy-fairy?

Instagram's community guidelines read:

We have zero tolerance when it comes to sharing sexual content involving minors or threatening to post intimate images of others.

Their terms of use say:

We develop and use tools and offer resources to our community members that help to make their experiences positive and inclusive, including when we think they might need help.

If that is not enough to crack down on this behaviour then their guidelines need to be updated. If it is enough then they simply need to enforce the guidelines that they've got. I find it ironic that Instagram, despite their intransigence on this issue, are listed as one of the 'proud supporters' of Safer Internet Day—seriously?

No matter what messages we send to children and young people and to their parents, teachers and carers about staying safe online, it's difficult to preach safe use of social media when social media platforms don't do their bit to make it a safe, positive experience for everyone, and that includes our children. Our children have to be able to be safe and not chased after, groomed and subjected to paedophile activity. (Time expired)