This National Child Protection Week, I have one message to the parents and carers worried about how to keep their kids safe online: I hear you loud and clear.
Fears about our kids interacting with online predators, being bullied, or seeing something they can’t unsee are completely valid.
As Australia’s eSafety Commissioner and as a parent, I share those fears, but I also know the problem is a complex one.
That is why eSafety advocates a multi-pronged strategy, keeping our children safer with our education and prevention resources, and our world-leading complaint schemes investigating cyberbullying, image-based abuse and child sexual exploitation. These are bolstered by our systemic regulatory powers and efforts to implement Safety by Design across the tech industry.
As part of our holistic approach, today we have launched two new initiatives aimed at securing greater transparency from Big Tech and providing increased support for families.
The first is the use of our transparency powers to issue requests for information from some of the world’s biggest social media companies around how they are detecting and removing under-aged users.
To implement and enforce any kind of social media restrictions, we need a clearer picture of how many Australian children are using these platforms and what technologies and processes companies have in place to protect younger users and enforce the age limits they have in place already.
The companies will have 30 days to provide their responses to us. Appropriate information on the findings may be published to improve transparency and accountability, and this will help inform the national conversation about appropriate age limits.
But it’s not just this national conversation that matters. Communication in the home between children and their parents or carers is equally important.
Our research shows that almost two-thirds of 14 -17 year-olds have viewed harmful content in the past year including drug use, self-harm, disordered eating and violent pornography and extremist imagery.
Young people often feel guilt, shame or embarrassment when they experience online harm and, for a range of reasons, may be reluctant to disclose it to a trusted adult. This, in turn, can increase the trauma.
We want to reduce the stigma and help empower parents, carers and trusted adults to provide the right kinds of support.
That’s why we have also today launched an additional suite of online safety resources designed to protect children and help build confidence in parents and carers when dealing with common online risks and harms.
The resources include practical tips for keeping children safe on games, apps and social media, and conversation starters to help parents and carers have age-appropriate conversations about potential harms including child sexual abuse online.
It’s best that these conversations happen before harms occur but our resources can also help parents problem solve when things do go wrong online.
Of course, the burden for safety should not solely fall on the shoulders of parents, carers and kids.
This is why companies focusing on safety by design is so critical. The weaponisation of platforms and services we use everyday will continue if the fundamental building blocks of safety are missing.
Mindful platform design is critical, as is engineering out misuse and consistently deploying innovative members to stay a step ahead of online malfeasance.
We can build on the solid foundations we have already made and strive for even more healthy and balanced environments for our children to thrive.
How we do this matters – we need to establish the right evidence base and talk about how effective implementation. At the heart of this important debate is a shared goal to protect and promote the wellbeing of our children.
This is a goal we all share – we should have wide-ranging conversations about how we can achieve these laudable aims.
