TALKING POINT
Social media at 16: Five common narratives that have left me bewildered
Social media at 16: Five common narratives that have left me bewildered CMA’s Vice President, Professor Wayne Warburton, School of Psychological Sciences, Macquarie University, was happy to see the passing of the bill which raised access to social media from 13 years...
FreeTV Code of Practice proposals leave children more at risk
CMA’s Hon CEO Barbara Biggins, urges action on the Code of Practice for the Australian Commercial Television Industry (2015), which is, at long last, being reviewed The Code of Practice for the Australian Commercial television industry (2015) is, at long last, being...
Frustrations of the social media debate
CMA’s President, Prof. of Law, Elizabeth Handsley, discusses When is a blanket not a blanket? – and other frustrations of the social media debate Maybe I’m biased, but from where I stand, the relationship between children and social media is one of the major global...
Channel changes at the ABC: good for children?
‘Channel changes at the ABC: good for children?’ In June, the ABC introduced two new channels – ABC Family and ABC Entertains – and four new digital streams with the aim of bringing together “the best kids, family, and general entertainment titles”, and making it...
Let’s not mention the classification – might spoil the fun?
CMA’s Hon CEO Barbara Biggins poses, ‘Let’s not mention the classification – might spoil the fun?’ The movie Deadpool & Wolverine has had a huge amount of promotion worldwide over recent weeks. Ad week says Deadpool & Wolverine at $211m, now sixth highest...
The Online Safety Act needs to cover more to prevent harm
CMA’s President Elizabeth Handsley and Hon CEO Barbara Biggins argue that ‘The Online Safety Act needs to cover more to prevent harm’ Submissions to the review of the Online Safety Act (OSA) have now closed. CMA has argued that there are a lot more areas that impinge...
Are social media bans the best course of action for minimising harm?
CMA’s Hon CEO, Barbara Biggins, discusses ‘Are social media bans the best course of action for minimising harm?’ The big topic of conversation this month has been whether, and how, we could ban children under the age of 14 years from accessing social media. There’s...
A useful start on reform of our classification system?
CMA’s Hon CEO, Barbara Biggins, posits ‘A useful start on reform of our classification system?’ The federal government has announced the next stage of the long running (since 2011) review of the National Classification Scheme (NCS), and submissions are called for by...
Finding the right balance
CMA’s Vice President, Prof. Wayne Warburton, discusses ‘Finding the right balance’. There is often a disconnect between what science finds about a phenomenon, and the public discourse around that phenomenon. Sometimes this is because those with business or ideological...
Best interests of children must be paramount.
Best interests of children must be paramount. To date, Australia’s online safety regime has not required industry to make the best interests of children paramount when designing or offering services used by children. The Federal Government has recently proposed that a...
Safety by design: an idea whose time has come in Australia?
CMA’s President, Prof. of Law, Elizabeth Handsley, puts forward, 'Safety by design: an idea whose time has come in Australia?' Imagine a world where you could let children go online with as much confidence as you can give them a glass of water out of the tap. Nobody...
How did this happen?
A parent has sent us her concerns about a trailer seen recently by her children. We’re sharing it as this month’s Talking Point. How did this happen? During our Sunday morning children’s cartoons viewing on 9Go on October 22, I saw the following commercial for the...