Protecting our kids online

WE need to fight cyber-bullying and help keep Aussie kids safer online.That was the loud and clear message you delivered to Government, and that's why we introduced laws today to make this happen.It's the delivery of an election promise and it means that North Queensland children will be better protected.Research shows that one in five Australian children are the victims of cyber-bullying.The proposed law includes a range of measures to combat this and provide a safer online environment for children, including:

• Establishing the office of the Children’s e-Safety Commissioner and setting out the Commissioner’s functions and powers;
• Creating an effective complaints system for harmful cyber-bullying material targeted at an Australian child, with the Commissioner given two sets of powers it can use in responding to a complaint;
• The power to issue a notice to a large social media service (social media service notice) requiring it to remove the material.
• The power to issue a notice to the person who posted the material (end-user notice) requiring the person to remove the material, refrain from posting the material or apologise for posting the material.
• The measures in the proposed law are designed to encourage large social media services to work cooperatively with the Commissioner under what is called ‘tier 1’.

However if a large social media service repeatedly fails to respond to a notice from the Commissioner, then it can be moved to ‘tier 2’, meaning that it has a legal duty to remove cyber-bullying material if it receives a notice from the Commissioner, and faces substantial fines if it does not.We have consulted very extensively – with schools, parents, kids from ages 5 to 17, social media services and other stakeholders – both in opposition and in government.The message from the community is loud and clear – government must act to fight cyber-bullying and help keep Aussie kids safer online.[box style="1 or 2"]The Children's e-Safety Commissioner will:

• take a national leadership role in children’s online safety initiatives across government to develop and implement policies to improve safety for children online;
• be established as an independent statutory office within the Australian Communications and Media Authority;
• work closely with police and other government agencies, as well as the internet industry, child protection organisations, and parent and teacher associations;
• administer funding of $7.5 million for online safety programmes in schools and $0.1 million to support Australian-based research and information campaigns on online safety.[/box]