Let them be kids: Australia’s top cop says social media ban a great start, but more needs to be done
Australia’s top cop says the incoming world-first social media ban is an excellent step forward, but more needs to be done to keep children safe from the dark corners of the internet.
Australia’s top cop says the incoming world-first social media ban alone will still not be enough to keep children safe from the dark corners of the internet, as she called on parents to remain vigilant to online threats.
Australian Federal Police commissioner Krissy Barrett said the restrictions, which come into effect on December 10 following News Corp Australia’s Let Them Be Kids Campaign, is a “great initiative, but it’s not going to solve the problem on its own”.
“A really important message for parents as we approach the commencement of the social media age ban is that parents need to be having discussions with their children that they still can feel safe to report incidents that are happening online,” she said.
“If they are engaging in social media, and they are under 16, (it’s important] that kids still know that they can come forward and discuss with an adult, what might be happening to them online so that we can take action.”
Ms Barrett announced a new task force on Wednesday to deal with an online network where boys and young men are preying on girls and young women for “sadistic exploitation”.
In “a new and disturbing front in traditional gender-based violence”, she said victims were being groomed into performing serious acts of violence on themselves, their siblings, others or their pets, via tactics similar to those in multi-player online gaming culture.
Asked whether gaming platform Roblox or messaging site Discord should be included in the incoming social media ban, she wouldn’t single out particular platforms these nefarious networks are operating on, but said it spanned “multiple platforms”.
Ms Barrett also warned that young people were falling into extremist rabbit holes via social media, which she said can happen rapidly.
“My message for parents of all children, young men and young boys and young girls is: you’ve just got to be so vigilant, because you know how quickly it can happen that a young person is taken down a path of extremism’,” she said.
The commissioner also said AI was adding extra layers of complexity to trying to keep children safe, especially with child exploitation material.
“The pressure is on our members to try and identify whether this is a real child in real time who is being exploited and who we need to take swift action on, or is it an AI generated image – which is obviously disgraceful, disgusting and an offence we action – but that’s just one example of the extra work and extra pressure on our members to combat these new variations of crimes being facilitated by AI technology,” she said.
Originally published as Let them be kids: Australia’s top cop says social media ban a great start, but more needs to be done
