I am extremely disturbed by the flood of violent and traumatising content on social media platforms since the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.
I have been in touch with the Communications and Home Affairs Ministers to see what levers can be pulled to limit this material and I am advised that the government has reminded the platforms of their responsibilities.
The platforms have a legal responsibility to take down such content.
As the parent of teenagers who are trying to process these events that directly touch their friends and community I know how difficult this is to navigate and how challenging it is to manage children’s exposure to social media.
Conversations with our children about the risks of exposure to such content are important, especially now, along with vigilance about what they are consuming.
My thoughts are particularly with our local Jewish community at a time of extremely high personal trauma and anxiety.
I know that some schools have put out warnings on this issue and I thank them for this initiative.
Disturbing content can be reported to the eSafety Commissioner at the following address: https://www.esafety.gov.au/report/forms
I will continue to work with the government on social media and the responsibility of the platforms to do no harm.
