Television stations asked to give bullying warnings before programs
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palazczuk has asked television networks to include bullying warnings in pre-program viewer advice.
Ms Palsazczuk has also written to the chief executives of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Google, reminding them they had obligations to protect children from online bullying.
Cyber-bullying and awareness campaigns will be rolled out in Queensland over the next two years at a cost of $2 million.
The Premier advised Queensland Parliament on Wednesday of the state government’s response to the 2018 cyber-bullying taskforce report.
Ms Palasazczuk said legal and social media academic Peter Black, from Queensland University of Technology, would chair the committee in charge with putting the September 2018 recommendations in place.
“I’ve announced a new advisory committee to help Queensland government departments action the 29 recommendations from the Queensland Anti-Cyber-bullying Taskforce report,” she said.
“The safety and wellbeing of Queensland’s young people is a top priority for my government and the work of this committee supports our $3.5 million commitment to address the prevalence of cyber-bullying and the harm it can cause.”
Earlier this month, the 2018 cyber-bullying chair Madonna King and Queensland Teachers Union president Kevin Bates warned authorities still had no idea of prevalent cyber-bullying was in schools.
The Queensland government has budgeted $3.5 million to research the issue and to put plans in place to target cyber-bullying.
In addition to the $2 million for cyber-bullying campaigns, the two-year campaign will give $1 million to schools to put in place the new national anti-bullying program, known as the eSmart Schools Program.
From this $1 million, $450,000 will go towards the Dolly’s Dream Foundation which was set up by the family of Warwick’s Scots College teenager Amy “Dolly “ Everett.
The 14-year-old student took her own life after being tormented while a boarder at the Warwick school in 2018.
That prompted New South Wales authorities to introduce tougher apprehended violence orders in response to serious online abuse.
Queensland is not following that approach and believes new “revenge porn” legislation introduced by Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath last year and made law on Wednesday is sufficient.
It will also give $500,000 in grants to young people to develop their own initiatives to address cyber-bullying.
The committee includes University of Queensland Social Work professor Karyn Healy, Queensland Secondary Schools Association chair Mark Breckenridge, Annika David from the Queensland Family and Child Commission, Elloise Waite, from the Create children’s care program, engineer Emily de la Pena from the Kids Coding Club and software developer Brent Neale from Digital Crayon.