News location:

Canberra Today 15°/20° | Friday, May 17, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Parents groomed online after posting photos of kids

The prime minister says it’s too easy for young people to access harmful content online. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)

By Dominic Giannini and Andrew Brown in Canberra

Parents have been warned about the amount of images they share of their kids online with a spike in the risk of child exploitation material.

Predators might also groom parents or guardians to create or send out child sexual abuse material, with almost three per cent of people saying they had received a request for child sexual exploitation in the past year.

This included requests for sexual images, questions of a sexual nature about children they knew or offers to pay for sexual images, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology.

Parents needed to be aware of the potential harm their children faced from online predators and simple measures could be applied to protect them, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said.

This includes changing privacy settings so photos and information are only shared with family and friends.

“The research highlights the importance of parents being more aware of the potential harms to their child from posting photos and information about children publicly online,” Mr Dreyfus said.

The government continues to crack down on misogynistic content online to reduce levels of violence against women following a spate of alleged murders and tens of thousands of protesters calling for more action.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has insisted new measures wouldn’t limit free speech.

Following a national cabinet meeting focusing on gendered violence, leaders agreed to a pilot of age verification to stop children accessing harmful online material such as pornography.

An ad campaign will  be rolled out from June that will challenge misogynistic attitudes towards women on online platforms.

Online content with harmful views about women was being viewed by young people, informing their own perceptions, Mr Albanese said.

“This isn’t free speech to promote hatred and violence and misogyny,” he told ABC Radio on Thursday.

“Parents are worried about the time that their kids spend online. They’re worried about the impact that that has.”

The prevalence of harmful content online had made it easy for young people to access it, Mr Albanese said.

“One of the tragedies, of course, is the way the algorithms work,” he said.

“It’s not like a young person has to go searching for this. Sometimes it’s everywhere. It’s the material searching for them and that is a very dangerous circumstance.”

The government has brought forward a review of its online safety act by one year, in an attempt to ensure the laws are kept up to date with technology.

The creation or sharing of deepfake pornography is set to be banned while laws prohibiting doxxing – the sharing of personal information such as addresses and phone numbers without consent – will be introduced to parliament in August.

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Share this

Leave a Reply

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews