Subjects: The Coalition’s plan to protect children from online harm; 36 months campaign.
E&OE.
MICHAEL ‘WIPPA’ WIPFLI:
Now, if you’ve listened to the show recently, we have launched the campaign – around three weeks or a month ago now – called 36 months, and we are trying to change the age that kids can join social media in this country. At the moment it’s 13 and there’s not much of an age gate anyway, so we know that a lot of younger kids are actually joining social media, but the damage that is being done is scary to talk about. It truly is. So the age of 16 might give them a level of maturity and a chance to hit the social media scene with some more skills, and that’s why we invite the Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton, this morning onto the show.
Pete, thanks for coming in mate.
PETER DUTTON:
Mate, great to be here. Thank you very much.
WIPPA:
When I think about what we’ve launched, so far on the petition, we have 100,000 signatures. So you can see the calling and you understand the need for this topic, and I know you’re passionate about it.
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I signed the petition this morning – and not just as a Dad, but also a long time ago as a police officer I worked in, obviously the sex offenders squad and other areas where it was pre-Internet, but it was an area where you saw people exposed to the worst element of society and how they coped with that, but now it’s on an industrial scale in terms of the content that young kids are subject to. We wouldn’t in the real world allow our kids to go into a park, or into a shopping centre just to hang out with any adult that came by…
WIPPA:
No.
PETER DUTTON:
…Would read anything put in front of them, without us knowing what it was.
So, I don’t think it’s unreasonable that particularly for young children, where you’ve got impressionable minds, and particularly when the evidence is so obvious that the self-harm and the pressure that comes on young people through sharing of images, etc., that’s the reality of their life now. We should be doing everything we can to support them.
RYAN ‘FITZY’ FITZGERALD:
I don’t know how you do that, Pete, being a police officer and seeing what you’ve seen, and I know you’ve spoken about your pretty strict parenting style over the years. I mean, even letting your kids into public toilets because you’re worried that they might go missing, or stuff like that. It must be very hard for you. I know your kids are a lot older now Pete, so was social media around then, when your kids were younger? Did you give was there an age limit for your children?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, our youngest guy has just finished year 12, so he’s 18, and then 19 and 22. So they’ve grown up with social media, and it’s the way that our family stays connected, but when they were younger we were pretty strict about what they had access to and particularly about their friendship groups online. But it’s a tough conversation because it’s the way that kids communicate with their own friendship groups, they want privacy, but you’re just blind to any of that. So, there’s a very different path that some kids can take as a result of being exposed to it.
WIPPA:
Pete, if your government was in power, is this something that you would support?
PETER DUTTON:
I would put it at the top of my list for the first 100 days in government. So, within the first three months we would introduce it, and it reflects the community values and where the view is for the vast majority of Australians at the moment. So, I honestly, I can’t understand an argument against putting in place sensible measures.
WIPPA:
And do you know what? A lot of the argument too and a lot of the feedback and comments have been, ‘but it’s the parent’s role’ – but unfortunately that doesn’t exist because the parents feel powerless because they’re caught out.
It is impossible because…
FITZY:
And it’s the excuse of ‘everyone’s on it’. It’s hard to argue with that with a kid, but if you say that ‘this is against the law, you can’t do it until you’re 16’, it’s a lot easier to get over the line with your children.
PETER DUTTON:
I think that’s exactly right. It just gives parents more power in the equation, and there is a lot of pressure because there are plenty of examples as well as of kids being isolated from their friendship groups, not being able to communicate – particularly that was the case over COVID, and many of them wouldn’t have coped without the ability to share their story and their journey and their pain and what they were experiencing, being shut out of school and locked up at home, etc… – and it’s the case that we need to have just a sensible, moderate approach. Nobody’s saying ‘ban the internet’ or any of that sort of nonsense…
WIPPA:
No, no.
PETER DUTTON:
It is about allowing parents to have that conversation, as we said, and as Fitzy points out, it’s tough for parents because, ‘every kid in the class has got it, so why haven’t I?’, but if you introduce the law and you normalise that as being the accepted norm, as you point out, I mean you can’t drive a car…
WIPPA:
Nope.
PETER DUTTON:
…until you’ve got your license. Everybody abides by that – or they should – and that’s a reasonable approach.
FITZY:
Gee there would have been a fair bit of difference between a 13 year old Peter Dutton to a 16 year old Peter Dutton?
WIPPA:
Oh, jeez. What was 13 year old Peter Dutton doing? What did he look like?
PETER DUTTON:
Mate, there was probably about 40 kilo difference between then and now. A kilo of that being hair as well. I tell my boys now, stop putting crap on me because I had more hair than you at your age.
WIPPA:
Really!
PETER DUTTON:
So you’ve got dodgy genes and look out.
WIPPA:
‘Get back to me when you’re older’.
PETER DUTTON:
Exactly right.
WIPPA:
Tommy, is this where we pin Mr Dutton down? If he gets the top job, if he becomes Prime Minister, we have an annual Kirribilli backyard cricket game. So, we would like to hope that if you’re in power, you would honour the game?
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah. That’s a deal. That’s a deal.
WIPPA:
Or do you want to turn this into a tennis game?
FITZY:
Oh, yeah!
PETER DUTTON:
No, no. We’re happy for a bit of backyard cricket. That’s big at our place.
Actually, we were – just a quick story – we were at Kirribilli years ago with our kids, who were quite young at the time, and on New Year’s Day the visiting cricket team always has a function at Kirribilli, so we go along there with our young kids, and Kirribilli has quite a steep drop off down…
WIPPA:
Oh that steep hill, yeah.
PETER DUTTON:
…Down the hill, and Harry decided that he would roll down the hill. But the trouble is he collided with a pot plant on his way down, and he just shook it off, and he was fine. Next year we went back, all the pot plants have got like tyres around them.
WIPPA:
You’re kidding me!
PETER DUTTON:
No, no.
WIPPA:
Padding! He redesigned the landscape.
PETER DUTTON:
He won’t be happy I’ve told that story, but anyway.
WIPPA:
Well Pete, thank you for coming on board, mate. And thank you for taking interest in it. Obviously a passionate topic. 36months.com.au If anybody hasn’t signed the petition, we want your voice there and stand up as a proud Aussie to say ‘enough is enough. We need to look after our kids’, and thank you for your support, mate.
PETER DUTTON:
Great stuff. Thanks guys. Thank you.
[ends]