Introduction of Australia’s First Anti Cyberbullying Laws
Friday, 30 October 2009 10:24
I was delighted this week in Parliament to introduce Australia’s first specific law aimed at addressing the cyberbullying of young people.
Cyberbullying, where children are verbally or physically assaulted, photographed and placed on the internet or circulated among mobile phones or emails, has grown dramatically. It is more than apparent that current measures available are ineffective in dealing with this issue.
The LNP and myself are deeply concerned about serious psychological harm, in some cases even sufficient harm to lead to suicide, to young people who are powerless against this sort of bullying and personal denigration.
I don’t believe that this is acceptable in a civilized society. It has largely flourished because we have not come to grips with how to manage such things in new technology such as social networking sites.
I have introduced a Bill that for the first time, specifically defines that verbal or physical bullying of a child is “child exploitation material” and that it is an offence to have such material.
Because the people involved are often very young and are not well dealt with by the court and legal system, on almost all occasions, no action is being taken. I have also introduced a new penalty to the Criminal Code which allows for permanent confiscation by a School Principal or Police Officer of any device that contains such an image.
This gives us a response that can offer some immediate protection to victims. It also is an easier response for police and schools when dealing with juveniles and gives a punishment befitting the crime. Immediacy is an important feature.
This approach is not dissimilar to what we do with hooning or repeat drink driving where cars are impounded.
Under the Bill I have introduced, confiscation will be permanent.
I think we can only seriously discourage this sort of behaviour by sending a very clear message that it is unacceptable and by having available some penalty that cannot be easily dismissed.
I think teachers, parents and those who deal with young people have a good understanding of just how insidious and potentially damaging the consequences of this behaviour are. In fact psychological scars in many cases last much longer than physical injuries.
I am urging the government to support the Bill so that it might become law and I have offered to work co-operatively with them should they require some fine tuning of some part of the Bill. I look forward to your comments.