Crusading dad’s big win in social media sextortion fight – Labor pledges money to expand SmackTalk campaign

Wayne Holdsworth lost his son to evil criminals who prey on teens – now the government has promised a big funding boost to expand his education campaign in schools.

An Aussie father dedicated to educating teens and parents about sextortion scams after losing his son to suicide will get a $450,000 boost to expand his advocacy work under a re-elected Albanese government.

Labor will on Wednesday announce the funding for SmackTalk, a charity founded by Wayne Holdsworth following the death of his 17-year-old son Mac, to help get the education program into more schools and sporting clubs around Australia.

Mr Holdsworth, who was a supporter of News Corp’s successful Let Them Be Kids campaign to raise the minimum social media age in Australia to 16, said the funding would support the rollout of “prevention and early intervention” methods to fight sextortion.

Mac took his own life in October 2023, just months after being sexually extorted by a middle-aged man pretending to be a teenage girl.

Wayne Holdsworth with his daughter Daisy at home in Melbourne. Wayne founded the organisation SmackTalk to educate young people about sextortion following the suicide of his son Mac. Picture: Jason Edwards

More than one in 10 Australian adolescents reported experiencing sexual extortion in their lifetime, according to a national survey of almost 2000 teens published by Australian Institute of Criminology researchers in February.

More than half experienced sexual extortion before the age of 16 – and two-thirds of adolescents had only ever met the perpetrator online.

Mr Holdsworth started SmackTalk as a legacy in Mac’s name that he hoped would save lives.

“The grief, shock, helplessness and self-blame of Mac’s death knocked me over physically and mentally,” he said.

“I asked Mac regularly if he was OK, he always responded ‘I am fine, Dad’.

“He was not fine and if I had the knowledge and skills that I have now, to really listen, the outcome may have been different.”

Wayne Holdsworth with his son Mac.

Mr Holdsworth said demand for his education program had been growing “month by month” and the extra funding would help him to meet the increased interest from community, sporting and school groups.

“The research clearly confirms that real learned listening techniques can make a world of difference,” he said.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said SmackTalk was conceived out of “tragic” and “unthinkable” circumstances as a force for good in Australia.

“The Albanese Labor government is proud to support SmackTalk in their mission to broaden the impacts of education to more young Australians and more communities,” she said.

Wayne Holdsworth started campaigning for tougher laws to protect kids on social media following Mac’s tragic death. Picture: Jason Edwards

The Labor MP for the Melbourne seat of Dunkley, Jodie Belyea, lobbied for the funding, and said it would allow Mr Holdsworth to build up more resources and arrange specialist training for extra facilitators to run the program.

“The persistence of sextortion cases underscores the need for ongoing education and preventive measures to protect vulnerable Australians,” she said.

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Originally published as Crusading dad’s big win in social media sextortion fight – Labor pledges money to expand SmackTalk campaign