The safety of children on TikTok will be the highest priority at the Coalition’s online safety roundtables.
I am calling on parents, teachers, children and young adults to come forward and share their stories.
It is deeply concerning that a social media platform pitched to 13 year old children contains so much inappropriate content.
Australian parents have every right to expect that their children will be safe online. So why is the Albanese Government failing to act on the urgent need for tougher online privacy protections for children?
For many months, the Opposition has been calling on the government to progress key provisions of the Coalition’s Online Privacy Bill including that social media companies must consider the best interests of the child when handling the personal information of children, including obtaining parental consent before apps are downloaded.
So far, we have seen and heard nothing from the Albanese Government on this critical issue.
TikTok may appear innocent and fun but it’s an online platform which presents unacceptable dangers.
TikTok’s data collection practices are frightening. Every bit of information – from the model of the phone to contact lists and email addresses – can be obtained. Not only does TikTok have the capacity to track a user’s content preferences, shared messages and location, but its privacy policy allows keystrokes entered on a device to be captured, meaning any content created can be accessed.
With TikTok collecting so much personal information, users are also highly vulnerable to attack by hackers.
It is estimated that TikTok has 2.5 million Australian users, with some 30 per cent under the age of 15. The government must act urgently to address this unacceptable risk to Australian children.
It is time that Communications Minister, Michelle Rowland, made the online safety of children the highest priority. This includes delivering the extra funding the eSafety Commissioner desperately requires to keep Australians safe online and providing adequate funding for online safety in schools.
Anyone who wishes to participate in an online safety roundtable can email me at senator.henderson@aph.gov.au.