Thank you, Nat, and Julie, for the warm welcome. It’s great to be here on Safer Internet Day – to shine a light on online safety through our schools, local communities and in partnership with like-minded organisations.

Can I begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land we are meeting on today, the Ngunnawal people. Together we stand on the shoulders of 1,600 generations of First Nations people and that is our shared history.

 I’d also like to acknowledge:

• My parliamentary friends and colleagues
• Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, from the eSafety Commissioner
• Commissioner Carly Kind from the Information Commission
• Commissioner Micaela Cronin from the Family and Sexual Violence Commission
• The youth advocates we have here today, ensuring conversations of mental health and education are on the forefront of our agenda.

Let’s talk about the news of the day. In the lead up to Australia’s world-leading social media ban, I travelled to schools right around the country meeting with students from grade 6 through to grade 12. I answered their questions about the law and I asked them what they thought about the changes and what else we as a government could do to keep them safe online.

Some students agreed with the principle of the social media law and were glad it was happening. Others were pretty blunt – they said they didn’t think it was fair and were already thinking about ways to get around it, and we welcome that honesty.

There was a consensus though in every school I visited – it was that social media platforms should be responsible for cleaning up their own mess, and they should be held accountable for the harm they are causing to young people online.

And I agree with that – and that is why the next step in our mission as the Albanese government is establishing a digital duty of care.

Right now, Australia’s Online Safety Act takes a real whack-a-mole approach to online safety. It can be slow and reactive, and it relies on users reporting harm after they’ve experienced it.

We are changing that, together.

A Digital Duty of Care will take some of the burden off Australians, and put the responsibility on big tech to have systems in place to prevent the harms from happening in the first place.

Harms we are all too familiar with – like non-consensual nudified images being created on Grok, predatory behaviour on Roblox, and algorithms that lead people down rabbit holes and feed them harmful content. 

That was until Australians united and we sent a clear and unprecedented message to big tech by legislating a minimum age for social media.

Going forward, we’ve got a lot of work to do to make sure our Digital Duty of Care reflects best practice, and more importantly, reflects what Australians expect from their digital service providers.

I look forward to continuing to work with you all on this journey.

The Albanese Government proved through our world-leading social media law that we will not stand idly by when it comes to protecting kids online.

Which is why yesterday, I put Roblox on notice.

I am – and I’m sure you agree with me – disgusted by reports we are seeing, particularly in recent weeks, about children being approached and groomed by predators, including sexually explicit material and graphic and gratuitous violence. Some of those kids are as young as four or five. 

It is abhorrent and for us, as a government, completely unacceptable. I am going to use every lever at my disposal to stop it.

I have written to the eSafety Commission and the National Classification Board seeking their advice. I have also sought an urgent meeting with Roblox, on behalf of Australian families, because kids should be able to enjoy a game online without being exploited, manipulated or abused, or without parents having to worry that their kid is at risk of being exploited, manipulated or abused.

Reflecting on today’s theme “Advice to my younger self,” the advice I want to share isn’t from me, but from Sam, Lex, and Lilly, who are high school students from Earnshaw State College in Banyo in my electorate of Lilley on the Northside of Brisbane.

When I asked them if they’d wished if they’d approached social media differently when they were younger, what they said was:

“I wish I’d spent less time on YouTube and Instagram.”

“I wish I’d slept more and studied more.”

“I wish I’d known when to stop.”

I think those are lessons that we can all empathise with.

Thank you all for your commitment to making the internet a safer place, particularly for young people.

Let’s keep working – for Sam, Lex and Lilly, and for our next generation who are relying on us.