Llew O’Brien explains new cyber-bullying legislation

The Wide Bay MP has called on families and individuals across the region to make submissions to a special committee being put together to examine online safety and the impact of online bullying.

Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien has called on families and individuals concerned about bullying on social media to make submissions to a committee being put together to examine the impacts of social media and online safety.

“We must put this in writing and hold tech companies, which have enjoyed a total lack of accountability for far too long, responsible for their actions,” Mr O’Brien said.

A committee is being drawn together and will examine the impacts of social media and online safety, finding out which algorithms are more likely to enable those behaviours and the amount of accountability each social media takes in those circumstances.

It will also investigate evidence of potential impacts of online harms on mental health and the general wellbeing of Australians.

“If kids fight in the playground, a teacher can break it up, but teachers cannot stop this insidious behaviour in a space they have no control over, and they are powerless to control it,” he said.

Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts Minister Paul Fletcher said the inquiry would allow organisations and individuals to air their concerns and for big tech to account for its conduct.

“Small family businesses can also suffer financially because of false and damaging reviews by vexatious parties and published online with no recourse to big tech,” said Mr O’Brien.

If you have a submission for the committee to investigate, the federal government encourages you to email: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Social_Media_and_Online_Safety/SocialMediaandSafety.