Federal Member for Wide Bay Llew O’Brien has urged the mothers and fathers of Wide Bay to tell a new inquiry of their experiences, fears and risks of social media.
“There are mothers in Wide Bay who wake up every morning terrified of what bullying their children have encountered in their bedroom during the night and what they are going to have to deal with in the morning,” he said.
“If kids fight in the playground, a teacher can break it up, but teachers can not stop this insidious behaviour in a space they have no control over, and they are powerless to control it.
“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.
“We must put this in writing to the Committee and hold tech companies, which have enjoyed a total lack of accountability for far too long, responsible for their actions.”
Submissions are now open to the Select Committee on Social Media and Online Safety which will examine evidence of potential impacts of online harms on the mental health and wellbeing of Australians; the extent to which algorithms used by social media platforms permit them, what accountability social media platforms; and online technology companies face, and any other related matter.
The inquiry builds on world-leading legislation the Morrison Joyce Government announced earlier last week to unmask anonymous online trolls.
Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, the Hon Paul Fletcher MP, said this inquiry would allow organisations and individuals to air their concerns and for big tech to account for its conduct.
To make a submission visit the website: aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Social_Media_and_Online_Safety/SocialMediaandSafety.
Submissions to the committee will close on 12 January 2022.
