THE HON MARK DREYFUS KC MP
ATTORNEY-GENERAL
CABINET SECRETARY
MEMBER FOR ISAACS
OPINION PIECE
It’s up to all of us to keep kids safe from online creeps and criminals
We all have a responsibility to protect our children from harm — and increasingly that harm is happening online.
The Albanese Government has acted to protect our children by passing world leading legislation setting a minimum age of 16 years for social media.
As the Prime Minister said: “We need to take action because social media can be a weapon for bullies, a platform for peer pressure and a tool for online predators. And because it is young Australians who are most engaged with this technology it is the young who are most at risk.”
Sadly, the potential for online harm doesn’t stop with social media. Simply keeping children away from their platforms isn’t enough.
Every parent knows all too well just how vulnerable children can be online. It’s shocking how they are bombarded with ads that profile and target them, promoting unhealthy or harmful products, or worse.
Games aimed at young children that offer rewards in return for handing over private information are increasingly prevalent.
Photos of Australian children have even been used without the consent of the children, or their parents, to train artificial intelligence models.
Adults may understand enough about their privacy to lock down their social media settings, resist the offers or deny payment.
We have laws that prevent children from smoking and driving before they are old enough and experienced enough to look after themselves and make informed decisions.
But until now, our privacy laws have not recognised that children need specific protection from invasive and harmful targeting online.
I’m pleased to tell you that’s about to change with the passage of landmark changes to the Privacy Act that will create a Children’s Online Privacy Code.
The Children’s Online Privacy Code will apply to social media and other internet services for all users under the age of 18, meaning it will have broader coverage than the social media bill.
Our national privacy watchdog, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, will work with children, parents, child development experts, child welfare advocates, service providers and the eSafety Commissioner to finalise the code.
The OAIC has already signalled it is attracted to the UK’s Age Appropriate Design Code which limits the collection and use of children’s personal information, provides greater controls for parents and makes it illegal to track the location of children or push them into providing more information.
It’s likely companies, media sites and others used by children would have to specifically tailor their privacy policies so that children can easily understand them, possibly using graphics and videos, rather than relying solely on words.
In other words, complicated and lengthy pages of fancy legal words just won’t cut it. Children will need to be able easily see exactly how their information can be used, and in a language that they can understand.
Not surprisingly, children’s safety advocacy groups strongly support the development of the Children’s Online Privacy Code with the CEO of the Alannah & Madeline Foundation declaring “THIS is seriously impactful, much needed and bloody brilliant progress!!!!”
But shockingly, the Liberal Party does not support the code, and voted against it twice, in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
In a digital world where we spend so much of our lives online, the Liberals showed no interest in protecting our kids from privacy threats.
The Liberals also voted against other privacy protections for all Australians including a right to sue for serious invasions of privacy and serious criminal penalties for doxxing.
We know that parents are deeply concerned about the impact uncontrolled exposure to the internet is having on their children.
We owe it to all children to do everything we can to keep them as safe as possible online.
This opinion piece was originally published in The West Australian
Thursday, 9 January 2025
