A-Gs to probe kids’ privacy on Facebook
July 20, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
THE nation’s attorneys-general will discuss whether laws should be introduced to allow parents access to their children’s Facebook accounts and social networking sites, allowing them to legally breach their privacy.
The Standing Committee of Attorneys-General will focus on social networking and new-media legal issues when it meets in Adelaide today, including discussions on what can be done to crack down on breaches of suppression orders on sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
South Australian Attorney-General John Rau yesterday said there needed to be a discussion on the impact of new technologies on suppression orders.
“Sooner or later there has to be a discussion about what is going to be occurring in the virtual world, because technology has been moving very quickly,” Mr Rau told The Australian.
“We need to look at the policing that occurs, who can and should do it and how do you do it.”
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Mr Rau said the attorneys-general needed to look at whether parents should have rights to access their children’s accounts, despite concerns it would breach privacy.
“For some reason, when you mention Facebook, people think the rules should be different.”
Australian Privacy Foundation chairman Roger Clarke said there had always been a grey area regarding children and teenagers, and each case needed to be looked at separately.
“It is difficult and most inappropriate to come up with a rule that at the age of 13 or 18 they become grown-ups and independent of their parents and have the right to privacy,” Dr Clarke said.
Dr Clarke said a knee-jerk reaction to restrict access to public space would be a “horrible thing”.
“If they do something silly they’re going to undermine an existing law and relationships between children and parents.”
The attorneys-general will also discuss what can be done to ensure suppression orders are not breached, as has happened in several high-profile court cases.
Last November, Jason Alexander Downie was accused online of being the murderer of Chantelle Rowe, 16, and her parents Andrew and Rose, shortly after he allegedly committed the crimes. His name was suppressed until recently and he is facing charges.
Independent senator Nick Xenophon has been campaigning for new laws to target social networking sites for several years. Last year he unsuccessfully proposed new laws targeted at pedophiles to stop adults lying about their age when dealing with underage children on the internet.
Senator Xenophon said there was a desperate need for law reform when it came to the internet.
“We’ve got 20th-century laws that aren’t coping with the 21st-century phenomenon of social media,” Senator Xenophon said.
“I urge the state attorneys-general to take an innovative approach; they need to, and we need to have a national conversation about this.”
But Senator Xenophon agreed the issue needed to be treated delicately because it could cause relationship breakdowns between parents and children.
The standing committee will also discuss the recent High Court decisions relating to organised crime legislation, and R+ ratings for video games.
