Online Guardianship Reform

With the ever-present risk of online sexual grooming and online sexual predators; it is important to protect those who are the most at risk; and the most vulnerable in these alarming situations. Minors. Children. Kids. What I want to talk about within this blog post, is this central issue of parental access to the online accounts (including social media) of children. I believe that this is an important issue within the law and is a current event within our legal system that needs to be reformed to further protect and provide protection for our younger generation.

I am proposing a central law reform proposal that would seek to enact certain provisions in the Criminal Code Act 1995  and the Family Act 1975 to allow for mandatory parental access to a child’s social media and online accounts. This would be in place to effectively enhance the protection of minors from online sexual predators and online grooming. I believe that increased awareness of a child’s online presence, their safety would automatically increase. Such that, sexual predators would more likely be recognised quicker by law enforcement agencies under this reform.

It is clear that more attention needs to be focused on the principles of protection and early detection, which can be achieved if parents have the mandatory access to their children’s online accounts. Essentially, this will provide early targeting of online grooming and ultimately; protect the wellbeing and healthy upbringing of children. Although there may be some practicality issues on this would function; I think that it would just be treated as another duty for a parent towards their child. Again, this does pose some questions about breaches of privacy for the children, but the pros definitely out weigh the cons in this situation and necessary movements need to be in place to better protect children against online predators and the dangers of online sexual grooming (which can create long lasting effects on the child’s mental health for example- the above video outlines what online sexual grooming is and the effects it can create on young people).

Reference for Text:

http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi379.pdf

Reference for Image:

http://www.youandco.org.uk/sites/default/files/styles/case_study_image/public/groomed_shutterstock_144287341.jpg?itok=_BGkEoQV

Reference for Youtube Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZLaiS3fZ8A