Federal Coalition Meet with Industry Experts on Social Media Reform

Two of Australia’s leading voices on online child safety and social media reform, are joining forces with Sunshine Coast based organisations to pave a better way forward for our nation’s children in the online world.

Sunshine Coast MP, Andrew Wallace and Shadow Minister for Communications the Hon.

David Coleman will use the roundtable meeting to discuss key issues around helping keep kids safe online.

“The online world and social media platforms and algorithms move so fast, and it is absolutely essential Government stays ahead of the curve,” the Federal Member for Fisher said.

“That’s why David and I are meeting with industry experts such as the Daniel Morcombe Foundation, Project Paradigm and No More Fake Smiles.

“The Federal Opposition has dragged Labor kicking and screaming to introduce age verification for online pornography, gambling and now social media. But it didn’t have to be so hard. Whilst Labor wanted to allow these industries to police themselves, Peter Dutton and the Coalition have fought hard to put the protection of children in Australia, front and centre. And we always will,” the former Speaker of the House said.

Mr Coleman welcomed the opportunity to speak with industry experts and the community on the Sunshine Coast.

“The Member for Fisher has been a long-time leader in building the case for new laws for age verification to protect young people from online harm,” Mr Coleman said.

“It is good to see the Albanese Government is also now backing our plans for stronger action to provide greater protections around social media.

The Coalition has announced that within the first 100 days of coming to office we would introduce an age verification system – and introduce an age limit of 16 for social media.

“Our efforts are aimed at giving power back to parents to help their kids in the online world,” Mr Coleman said.

Co-founder of the Daniel Morcombe foundation and child Safety Advocate, Bruce Morcombe said, “every single day children’s attitudes and life perspectives are being detrimentally shaped, altered, twisted and spat out by what they freely see on the Internet.”

“This has already created significant problems for a whole generation of our youth. It is imperative that Australia becomes the world leader in making real and positive online barriers to keep our kids safe. This is a national health issue,” Mr Morcombe said.

Principal Advisor at Project Paradigm Conrad Townson said, “Project Paradigm’s vision is a national community that acknowledges, understands and values childhood by committing to the protection of children and young people through collaboration, advocacy and support.”

“It is on this basis that we are very supportive of actions that seek to protect children from harm, both online and offline. Through our work Nationally, we aim to provide a perspective on the issue of child exploitation and abuse that accurately reflects frontline experiences, with the ultimate objective of achieving improvements in State and Federal legislation and policy so that no child falls through the gaps,” he said.

Two in five kids see porn on their newsfeed without looking for it. Dangerous fad diets and “thinspiration” can lead to eating disorders and self-harm. Foreign disinformation campaigns drive extremism and division. Algorithms amplify biases, desensitise us, and disable moderation. Things have to change in the online world, and the Coalition is committed to doing just that.