PM meets grieving parents as tech giants ordered to ban nudification apps
A man whose son died after online sextortion has told the Prime Minister his child might still be alive if Labor's social media ban had happened sooner.
Anthony Albanese has praised the “courage and candour” of a group of parents who have turned their grief into advocacy, as he announced the next stage of his online safety crackdown.
The Prime Minister in return was thanked by the parents from News Corp Australia’s Let Them Be Kids campaign – whose children died by suicide after experiencing online harm – for his leadership on the world-first social media ban for under-16s.
Wayne Holdsworth, whose son Mac died after being sextorted on Instagram, told Mr Albanese his son might still be alive today if the restrictions had been in place years ago.
The meeting came as the government declared the onus would be on big tech platforms to eradicate nudification apps as part of the next stage of Labor’s online safety crackdown.
Emma Mason, whose late daughter Tilly attempted suicide after a deepfake nude video of her was created and circulated, shared her story with Mr Albanese and Communications Minister Anika Wells.
Ms Wells said the government was drawing a line in the sand and would use every lever at its disposal to restrict access to nudification and undetectable online stalking apps.
She said the government doesn’t have a time frame in mind about when the restrictions will need to be in place, and it will be up to the platforms on how to comply.
“Where I feel like we must go next is shifting the responsibility from people having to report harm after the harm has occurred to stopping the harm from happening in the first place and putting the onus on tech platforms who conduct business in our country’s, use that data, make enormous profits,” she said.
Already there are laws at a state and federal level prohibiting the distribution of non-consensual material, but Ms Wells said “slimy predators are slipping through the cracks”.
“The current landscape relies too heavily on victims reporting the issues once the harm occurred. We have to move the burden of reporting from the shoulders of victims, and stop the harm at the source,” she said.
eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant said she welcomed the government’s announcement.
“In the meantime, eSafety will use all the powers currently available to us to prevent harms arising from these services today, with the aim of further strengthening this arsenal into the future,” she said.
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Originally published as PM meets grieving parents as tech giants ordered to ban nudification apps
