Speakers: Ms Julie Inman Grant, Senator Varun Ghosh

Transcript

Senator Varun Ghosh

I welcome officers from the Australian Communications and sorry, no, from the Office of the E-Safety Commissioner. Uh, welcome Miss Inman Grant and to your team. Uh welcome back, I should say. Uh now I understand Miss Inland Grant, this may be your last appearance in front of us as the E-Safety Commissioner. Uh, that genuinely fills me with some sadness because I've enjoyed your appearances here enormously, and you've been a very helpful witness to this committee in a range of different contexts. So uh I won't say too much about it, but we are grateful for your service, um, and I'm personally very thankful for the way you've contributed to this committee's work. Would you like to make an opening statement?

Ms Julie Inman Grant

I would, thank you. Um, and I'd like to start by sharing my condolences to Helen Haines MP for the senseless attack she endured, and my thoughts are with her, her family and her community. Chair and members, I'd also like to acknowledge this is a sensitive and pivotal moment for Parliament. Over the past week, we've seen important public conversation about how online interactions can translate into real world harm. We've heard from current and former politicians across Parliament. AFP Commissioner Chrissy Barrett has also drawn. On a direct link between inflammatory political discourse and threats against parliamentarians. The AFP Commissioner and I spoke about these very issues in March. I've been warning about the gravity of gendered online violence since 2018 when my office began seeing escalated abuse targeting women in the public eye across politics, media, entertainment, and sport. I saw this file harassment firsthand at Twitter more than 15 years ago. And what has become increasingly clear is that abuse manifests differently against women and girls than it does against men. It's sexualized. It's violent. It includes rape threats against the target and death threats against her children. It goes after her age, her appearance, her weight, her supposed virtue, and even her fertility. And it has a purpose to silence women, to drive them from online spaces and ultimately out of public life. Violent and targeted online abuse, intended to cause serious harm, is not a product of free expression. It is designed to suppress speech. This is precisely why Parliament drew a line in 2021 around where online discourse becomes serious harm through the adult cyber abuse scheme. We've always been clear that the threshold is high. That means we can act after as a safety net only after the most violent and egregious cases and after the harm has been done. But if we're honest, these regulatory tools do not reflect the way that abuse proliferates on platforms today. We have effectively been given a fall fly swatter to contain swarms of killer bees. That is why I look to build other interventions, including the Women in the Spotlight program in 2018 to help women in the public eye manage online abuse more effectively. And as online threats evolve, we knew women needed more tools to protect themselves. So we expanded the program to include social media self-defense training, helping Australian women recognize emerging threats and how to build their psychological armor. Through this training, we also help women assess whether online abuse could escalate into real-world harm and identify clear pathways to e-safety and police when threats become credible. We deliver bespoke e-safety webinars and face-to-face training, including with partners such as Pathways to Politics and Women for Election. We also saw the next wave of gendered abuse coming. In 2020, our Tech Trends and Challenges program warned that deep fakes would disproportionately impact women and girls. They have. Since June, three more AI-powered nudifying services have withdrawn their services from Australia following enforcement action through our online safety codes. In total, eight of the most widely used services have either withdrawn access from Australia or taken steps to comply with their obligations under the Online Safety We commenced civil penalty proceedings in federal court against Telegram for its alleged failure to detect and remove pro-terror material from the platform. And we secured court enforceable undertakings from Roblox to put in place robust measures to protect children from grooming, sexual exploitation, and abuse. We used our transparency powers to expose what the world's largest online gaming services providers are and are not doing, to protect users from serious online harms, and alongside enforcement prevention and education remain just as critical. Our Be Connected Online Digital Literacy program for senior citizens has now reached 3 million users. And we reached over 650,000 young men with life-saving sexual extortion prevention messaging and support. In the last financial year, the e-safety website had 14.4 million visitors. Our webinars and digital campaigns reached 4 million Australians, including more than 1.7 million people through our trusted e-safety providers program. We also released online safety advisories and new research, sparking important conversations across the education community. This included research on AI chatbots and companions, guidance for parents on discussing the manosphere with their sons, practical guidance for schools on safely hosting student imagery in the age of AI, and advice on invasive technologies such as smart glasses. In closing, it has been the honor of my professional life to serve as Australia's e-safety commissioner for the past decade, leading the world's first online safety regulator and building the foundations for a stronger innovative regulator ready for the challenges ahead. Their tireless effort, commitment, and passion for our mission have been unwavering. There's never been a more critical time for Australia to have a well-resourced online safety regulator with the right tools to tackle the much more complex and challenging world of AI. I look forward to discussing with you and the committee and answering your questions. Thank you.

Senator Varun Ghosh

Thank you.