Chhour KarenCRIMES (CHILD EXPLOITATION OFFENCES) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingDebate resumed from 15 March.KAREN CHHOUR (ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise on behalf of ACT and speak to the Crimes (Child Exploitation Offences) Amendment Bill. I really appreciate that this has been brought to the House. It's an issue that many parents are very worried about and it's important that laws keep up with technology and that we're protecting our children and our young people from great harm that can happen. No longer is it just past the fence and down the street that your children are in danger; it can actually be on the screen in your child's bedroom. So I think it's really important that we deal with these issues. ACT supports this bill and supports the direction it's going in to protect our young people.Now as a parent myself with four children a few years ago I was really concerned about this kind of thing with my children and what they were seeing online and what they were doing. As a parent with multiple children it's really hard to cut off internet access to just one without punishing the rest. So one may be misbehaving online and you're saying I'm going to cut off the internet." and the rest are kind of feeling punished for that behaviour.So there are multiple things that parents can do on top of what the Government can do to deal with this issue. There are devices you can buy which will allow you to monitor what your children are seeing and doing online and how much time they're spending on certain sites in order to keep them safe.So online grooming involves predator behaviour from people who often disguise themselves as somebody else. With social media and gaming platforms this can be quite dangerous for our young people where they don't know who they're speaking to on the other side and they open themselves up and they're very vulnerable. The consequences of online grooming can be very devastating. It can lead to children being groomed for physical harm sexual harm and it's just something that we need to acknowledge is an issue and we need to try and get ahead of this so that we can protect our young ones.There's only so much that the Government can do. We can put things in place to try and prevent or to make people think twice before they're behaving in inappropriate manners but it's also up to society as a whole to make sure that they are aware of what their young people are doing online. If they see that their children are upset when they're coming off the computers or if they're isolating themselves ask the questions. If your child comes to you and says that somebody has been inappropriate or wants to meet with them and wants to do something that they feel uncomfortable with as a parent don't hesitate—ring the authorities and let them know that this is happening because we don't know what we don't know and authorities can only deal with this if we're coming forward and standing up for our young ones. If we see behaviour from people online the way they are talking to younger people online it's also our job to say "Hey mate maybe you shouldn't be doing that." We need to be treating each other with respect online.So this is all about technology in the digital world which many adults are kind of stand-offish about because we don't understand it as well as our young people do. But we need to understand that this can lead to fatal consequences for our young people. When they go and meet somebody without knowing who they're meeting we don't know what could happen to them if that meeting happens. So this bill actually deals with that and makes sure that we are making this behaviour illegal and that anyone over the age of 18 that interacts with a person under the age of 16 is held accountable for inappropriate behaviour in the digital world and it's about time. Too often we're hearing about the pressures that our young people are going through on social media cellphones text messages and even on the online gaming platforms that seem to be taking over at the moment.So the sexual grooming offence will now align with existing offences in the Crimes Act—which can only be a good thing. It will also allow police a better ability to do their job without crossing any lines that would cause them to not be able to do their job and so I think that's really important too making sure that the in-person behaviour doesn't actually have to happen before consequences start to kick in. If the intent is there—if you are grooming a young people online and the intent is there—then you will be held accountable and so you should.So I'm really happy that this bill has been brought to the House. I'm hoping that it will make a difference when it comes to dealing with people that are behaving badly towards under-16-year-olds online. I hope this also brings to parents' attention how important it is to actually know what your kids are doing and saying online. So thank you Mr Speaker."