E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Topics: National Memorial for Victims of Child Sexual Abuse, Digital Duty of Care, Social Media Algorithms
JOURNALIST: This has been a long time coming, but as you mentioned, so important. You spoke about bringing us out of silence. Can you just expand on that?
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Today is a really important day, and it has been a long time coming. A national memorial for victims of institutional child sexual abuse, was a recommendation of the Royal Commission, and I'm so pleased today that construction work on this important memorial will begin. This is a place where victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse can come, remember, connect and remember those we've lost. Sadly, too many have died before ever receiving the acknowledgement that they should have received. And it also, as a memorial, is a reminder to every Australian that we need to protect children. It's a reminder for the future as well.
JOURNALIST: What have you heard from the families and friends and survivors of how they will use this space?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Many victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse have been involved in the design for this project. They've told us they want a place to reflect and a place to connect, a place where they can come to remember what happened to them but also remember the people they lost. We know too many victims of child sexual abuse have taken their own lives, haven't been able to deal with the pain. To remember those people, it's really important to have a place like this, and also as a reminder to every Australian the importance of protecting children.
JOURNALIST: Just relating to the digital duty of care. So, how specifically will digital duty of care laws interact with influencers and the so called manosphere.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, you'll be able to see the digital duty of care details later today when the Communications Minister, Anika Wells, releases the paper. But it's really important to say we want Australians to have more control over what they see in their own social media. We've had the National Party and One Nation saying that this is about censorship. It's the exact opposite of that. At the moment, decisions about what goes into your social media feed are made by faceless tech bros in Silicon Valley. What we're saying is that people should have the ability to make those decisions for themselves, and if they want to follow, you know, Jordan Peterson or whoever, that's a decision for them. At the moment, what happens is teenage boys, within minutes of setting up a social media account, are fed violent misogynistic content. They're not choosing it. They're not looking for it. It takes an average of 23 minutes for an account set up by a teenage boy to be fed misogynistic content online. That's not choice, that's indoctrination, and the indoctrination of our young men is having real-world consequences. Between 2010 and 2024, we saw a 70% increase in sexual assaults reported to police. The majority of victims are under the age of 18, and the majority of perpetrators are under the age of 18 now. There is something happening that is increasing rates of violence amongst teenagers dramatically, and the idea that this is not related to the violent misogynistic content that they're being fed by the algorithms is just fantasy. It's not weak and it's not woke to teach consent education in schools and giving young people themselves, anyone the ability to follow the accounts that they choose, the friends that they've made, the issues that they're interested in-that's what we're talking about.
JOURNALIST: The social media ban for under 16s had that same wonderful broad ideal, but in practice, kids are getting around them. How are we going to avoid that?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: So the under 16 social media ban has seen 5 million underage accounts shut down. We always knew that some kids would find workarounds in the same way that children aren't allowed to drink alcohol, but there's plenty of kids who had a drink before they hit the age of 18, teenagers find a way. What we've done is introduced legislation into the parliament to make the tech companies more responsible for doing their job and stopping the under 16s. We've sought to double the penalties against big companies, big tech companies that are ignoring the social media under 16s delay, and unbelievably, the Greens and the Coalition teamed up to delay voting on this very simple measure to double penalties for big tech giants that are not protecting our kids, they've got an opportunity this week to vote, to increase the penalties, to hold big tech to account, to protect our kids. .
JOURNALIST: There's been talk about feminisation, as you alluded to, in schools and classrooms, and the treatment of boys. Senator Canavan has been very vocal about this, he thinks it's driving boys to the manosphere. A big part of it is the feminization of these classrooms. Do you agree with this?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I think blaming the teachers who are at the front line and coping misogynistic treatment & language from the students that they teach has just completely got this around the wrong way. Teachers are reporting boys as young as six using language from the manosphere in the classroom. Teachers are reporting sexualised noises when they walk past, sexualised threats in the classroom. Teachers are at the front line of this. I think it's extraordinary to excuse the social media giants that are monetising misogyny and blame instead the teachers who are trying to teach our kids respect. When did it become a bad thing for boys to have to respect teachers, whether they are male or female. When did the National Party decide that discipline in the classroom was an optional extra for boys who don't want to listen to female teachers? I think it is extraordinary to blame the teachers, particularly those teachers who are trying to teach our kids consent, which is the law, teaching them to obey the law, and respectful relationship, which benefit both boys and girls. Which are not just necessary social skills when they're in high school, they're necessary social skills when they're out in the world and in the workforce and everywhere else that they'll be required to treat other human beings with basic courtesy.