Minutes/Policy Development Committee/Enhancing Online Safety for Children Inquiry WG/2014-01-30

Attendance

 * Bill McLean (Chair)
 * Laura Killian
 * Trevor Dadson
 * Andrew Downing
 * Mark Walkom
 * Simon Frew
 * Mozart Olbrycht-Palmer

Opening comments

 * It seems there are three main proposals:
 * Establish a children's e-safety commissioner
 * A complaints system for cases when a site refuses to take down material harmful to a child
 * Creating a new offence of cyber-bulling.
 * The report is short on hard data
 * There is a claim that 50% of teenagers have been "exposed to cyber-bulling" but not necessarily victims of it.
 * Also seems to talk about setting up a take-down request channel, and asks if 48 hours is a fast enough response time.
 * The Internet doesn't play well with national boundaries.
 * "Cyber-bullying" isn't different from other bullying, except it doesn't need to be face-to-face.
 * http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/teen-angst/201205/cyberbullying-versus-traditional-bullying-1
 * Suggests the difference is regular bullying tends to happen in groups, while cyber-bulling is usually individual-to-individual.

Immediacy

 * 48 hours takedown time is quick in terms of getting someone to review and remove content, but it's ancient history on the social media site itself.
 * Minutes can be an issue for some things.
 * Facebook's response time (for example) is virtually immeasurable: sometimes quick, sometimes slow.
 * Resources to meet the takedown time might overwhelm the Commissioner's Office.
 * A process to immediately suppress content for a short period of time while it is reviewed would be more appropriate to meet the time needs.
 * Would need a counter-mechanism in place to avoid abuse.
 * Automatic suppression is an instant ability to abuse free speech and usually has very little cost or blowback to the complainant.
 * Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) take-downs show that false complainants suffer very little or no consequence.
 * Children are less supervised online compared to offline; one is less inhibited when adults aren't listening.
 * Collective counter-bullying activities may be more effective.
 * Could lead to cultural change.
 * Naming and shaming of websites that are slow to react to take-down requests is floated as an idea to improve response times in the discussion paper.
 * A website would be labelled as "unsafe for children" if slow to react.
 * Are children going to avoid sites because they get named and shamed?
 * Probably not. See, e.g. 4chan.
 * Most sites wouldn't be worried as long as money rolls in.
 * Parents could block offending sites?
 * Could work, though obviously tech-savvy children would be able to get around it.
 * Blocking sites is like banning a certain playground — it won't stop the bullying.
 * Responding to a take-down request hours later is a waste of effort.
 * Even if content is removed from one site, it will pop up again somewhere else.
 * General agreement that the take-down idea won't work.
 * Some opinion that a penalty for false take-down requests might work.
 * Countered by anonymous/pseudonymous sites or creating a new account/having multiple accounts.
 * The data spreads rapidly, how can you effectively take it down?

Cyber-bulling offence

 * Threats via phone also apply to the Internet.
 * 7 years for threats over a carriage service, even if not causing actual fear or apprehension.
 * Idea is that penalties would be much less ($1,000 fine) but be more frequently applied.
 * Only example of positive press on the proposals: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2013/s3931058.htm

Cultural attitudes

 * How do you teach kids that the same rules apply for things you say online and offline?
 * Trying to teach kids about better behaviour would be a good approach.
 * A lot of bad behaviour could be learned from parents.
 * "Peer-regulated behaviour"
 * When the Government and parents treat something as bad and to be warded against, it grows the problem, creating adversarial situations.
 * When we go the other way and embrace the Internet as inherent in our culture and teach good behaviour, then all is well.
 * Children probably don't make the distinction between online and offline as strong as their parents do.

Summing up

 * Create a pad and start bashing out ideas: http://pad.pirateparty.org.au/p/EnhancingOnlineSafetyForChildren
 * Meet back in a fortnight.