Cyber safety chief pushes government to go further on social media ban
Australia's eSafety Commissioner has used her National Press Club address to urge the Albanese government to extend its social media ban to YouTube.
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Sydney Morning Herald
an hour ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Albanese's class of 2025 tightens PM's grip on party
Many in the current ministry were supported by Albanese on their way up, such as Skills and Training Minister Andrew Giles, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy and Communications Minister Anika Wells, Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain and Bennelong MP Jerome Laxale. Many of the new MPs have similar ties to the PM, such as former Tasmanian Labor leader Rebecca White, who has been appointed assistant minister for women, Anne Urquhart, who Albanese encouraged to quit her position in the Senate to run for the Tasmanian seat of Braddon, and Rowan Holzberger, who was elected in the Queensland seat of Forde. Albanese also heavily backed the pre-selection of Matt Smith, the former Cairns Taipans basketball player, whose electorate he visited several times during the 2025 campaign. Smith said the PM's campaign message of centrist policymaking and stability in an uncertain world would be a marker of success. 'Stability is the aim of any government. You set out to deliver what you said, and that was a strength of the Albanese government coming into this election, and then I think was reflected in the results. Loading 'Having played sport for so long, when you've got that clear message and everyone's pulling in the right way, that's when you have success.' Labor won 12 seats from the Liberals or Liberal National Party in Queensland, three from the Greens and one from an ex-Liberal MP Ian Goodenough, who quit the party during the previous term and contested the election as an independent, as well as securing an inaugural victory in the new seat of Bullwinkel in Western Australia. ANU Australian historian Frank Bongiorno said landslide election wins such as the Menzies' government in 1949 and Bob Hawke's in 1983 have had long-lasting impacts on the political landscape. Bongiorno said John Howard's big win in 1996, when the Coalition gained 26 seats, launched a number of significant careers such as those of Warren Entsch, Joe Hockey, Sharman Stone, Danna Vale, Joanna Gash and Jackie Kelly and established a new demographic target for the Coalition in the mortgage belts of Howard battlers. 'It brought some very, very significant women into the parliament and also, I think, crafted that idea of Western Sydney being very critical,' he said. However, Bongiorno said the shock results in formerly safe Labor seats of Bean in the ACT and Fremantle in Western Australia, which the government won by razor-thin margins, showed the unpredictability of elections given the collapse in primary votes of major parties. 'Things have changed in terms of how votes translate into seats and majorities these days. It's a very different world even from 1996,' he said. 'So we're dealing obviously with a really significant number of MPs who, even if they've got what look like reasonably solid margins, are going to have to work very hard to protect them because the idea of the traditional safe seat does seem to be in decline.'
The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
Albanese's class of 2025 tightens PM's grip on party
Many in the current ministry were supported by Albanese on their way up, such as Skills and Training Minister Andrew Giles, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy and Communications Minister Anika Wells, Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain and Bennelong MP Jerome Laxale. Many of the new MPs have similar ties to the PM, such as former Tasmanian Labor leader Rebecca White, who has been appointed assistant minister for women, Anne Urquhart, who Albanese encouraged to quit her position in the Senate to run for the Tasmanian seat of Braddon, and Rowan Holzberger, who was elected in the Queensland seat of Forde. Albanese also heavily backed the pre-selection of Matt Smith, the former Cairns Taipans basketball player, whose electorate he visited several times during the 2025 campaign. Smith said the PM's campaign message of centrist policymaking and stability in an uncertain world would be a marker of success. 'Stability is the aim of any government. You set out to deliver what you said, and that was a strength of the Albanese government coming into this election, and then I think was reflected in the results. Loading 'Having played sport for so long, when you've got that clear message and everyone's pulling in the right way, that's when you have success.' Labor won 12 seats from the Liberals or Liberal National Party in Queensland, three from the Greens and one from an ex-Liberal MP Ian Goodenough, who quit the party during the previous term and contested the election as an independent, as well as securing an inaugural victory in the new seat of Bullwinkel in Western Australia. ANU Australian historian Frank Bongiorno said landslide election wins such as the Menzies' government in 1949 and Bob Hawke's in 1983 have had long-lasting impacts on the political landscape. Bongiorno said John Howard's big win in 1996, when the Coalition gained 26 seats, launched a number of significant careers such as those of Warren Entsch, Joe Hockey, Sharman Stone, Danna Vale, Joanna Gash and Jackie Kelly and established a new demographic target for the Coalition in the mortgage belts of Howard battlers. 'It brought some very, very significant women into the parliament and also, I think, crafted that idea of Western Sydney being very critical,' he said. However, Bongiorno said the shock results in formerly safe Labor seats of Bean in the ACT and Fremantle in Western Australia, which the government won by razor-thin margins, showed the unpredictability of elections given the collapse in primary votes of major parties. 'Things have changed in terms of how votes translate into seats and majorities these days. It's a very different world even from 1996,' he said. 'So we're dealing obviously with a really significant number of MPs who, even if they've got what look like reasonably solid margins, are going to have to work very hard to protect them because the idea of the traditional safe seat does seem to be in decline.'
West Australian
2 hours ago
- West Australian
Australia's eSafety commissioner takes fight against harmful online behaviour into the school ground
The eSafety Commissioner is taking the fight against harmful online behaviour into the schoolground by launching deepfake incident management plans in Australian schools. Mandatory standards will also take effect this week to ensure tech firms act to tackle 'high impact harmful material'. Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant told the National Press Club the rise of deepfake pornography and online sex abuse was 'deeply concerning' and increasingly young people were either seeing, creating or sharing it. Ms Inman-Grant flagged troubling language becoming 'commonplace', such as the acronym 'kys' to encourage someone to 'go kill yourself'. 'We've started to issue end user notices to Australians as young as 14 for hurling unrelenting rape and death threats at their female peers,' she said. Another worrying trend investigators discovered was a 1300 per cent increase in reports of teens and young adults experiencing sexual extortion in three years. 'Sexual extortion is reaching crisis proportions,' she said. 'We have seen a 60 per cent surge of child sexual extortion over the past 18 months, targeting 13 to 15-year-olds. 'But we've also seen an increase in reports from 16 to 17-year-old boys.' She also called for more age restriction guardrails for AI, saying 'powerful, cheap and accessible AI models' were out 'in the wild' in Australia and presenting 'further hazard' to children. Three new industry codes, designed to limit children's access to pornography, violent content, themes of suicide and disordered eating, were announced. Ms Inman-Grant also warned that no social media platform should be exempted from an under-16s ban as avenues to harm young people were becoming increasingly 'dynamic'. She clarified that her recommendation to include more platforms, which prompted a scathing response from YouTube, went beyond the video-sharing site, using Whatsapp as another example. 'This wasn't just about YouTube. Our recommendation was that no specific platform would be exempted,' she said. She said social media platforms were 'all blurring' by adding an array of new functions where harm could occur, such as AI chatbots, short-form videos and comment threads. 'The relative risks and harms can change at any given moment, as well as the different features they incorporate. They're all blurring,' she said. 'Even WhatsApp now is offering channels and advertising. This is a dynamic field and we have to be able to stay ahead.' She said it was down to Communications Minister Anika Wells to decide which platforms were included. Ms Wells was notably absent from Tuesday's address. It's understood that the Albanese Government is considering axing YouTube's exemption which was initially indicated by former communications minister Michelle Rowland late last year. Ms Inman-Grant said the Google video platform had been in her sights after surveying of and reports on young people had found it was one of the top online harm hotspots. 'YouTube was the most frequently cited platform in our research, with almost four in 10 children reporting this close to harmful content there,' she said. The Commissioner's advice was provided last week and published on Monday after Ms Wells sought her independent safety advice on the draft rules. Throughout her address, Ms Inman-Grant had rejected it was a 'ban', claiming it did 'not involve technology mandate but will likely require a waterfall of effective tools and techniques' to keep kids safe. Ms Inman-Grant said further consultation would launch this week and labelled it the 'one of the most complex and novel pieces of legislation the eSafety has ever implemented'. 'Esafety will start consulting upon our regulatory framework this week, and we will use this very feedback to further hone our regulatory guidance under the legislation,' she said. 'Over the next few months, we will be talking to over 150 stakeholders, including industry, academics, advocates, right groups, parents and, most importantly, young people themselves. 'There are key milestones that have now been reached and more coming just over the horizon that are bringing us closer to the minimum age obligation taking effect.' She also used the address to announce three new industry codes designed to limit children's access to pornography, violent content, themes of suicide, and disordered eating. Lifeline: 13 11 14
