The final push before Australian’s head to the polls this Saturday is well and truly underway, with both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton doing the mad media dash.
This morning saw Dutton agree to an interview on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, where he was pressed on a number of issues, including the dangers of social media.
Dutton, who has long advocated for better protections for children online, didn’t hold back in his criticism of social media companies.
“I’ve spent a lot of time over the years working on trying to protect, in particular, girls online,” he said.
“Sharing your body images and those images that ultimately stay on the internet forever, or, you know, sexual abuse of kids and those images. Somebody who’s been abused feels that they’ve been re-abused every time that image is being shared.”
“Trying to get these companies to remove those images and take them down has been a bloody nightmare,” Dutton added.
Peter Dutton
Time to take a stand
Host Kyle Sandilands, who has long been outspoken on issue of the dangers of social media, shared his frustration with the power that social media platforms wield.
“If I was running the joint in all these TikToks and the Facebooks, and all these places that won’t play ball with us, won’t pay tax, won’t give credit where credit’s due, why can’t we just turn them off?” he asked, proposing that social media platforms should be held accountable by the government in the same way any unsafe product would be.
“If there was a car company bringing cars that weren’t safe into Australia and children were dying, we would not allow it to happen. Why can’t we just turn them off?
“If children are dying and our ecommerce regulation people can’t stop them or are powerless, turn the b******* off – like it’s not the end of the world if we don’t have one social media company here.”
He went on to challenge the notion that doing so would be too extreme, calling for leaders to be brave enough to take action. “Sometimes you just gotta stand up and be brave and say, ‘Well, if you don’t play ball, you don’t operate here.'”
Kyle Sandilands
Holding big tech accountable
While both men agreed on the necessity of stronger regulations, Dutton did caution about the complexities involved in implementing such sweeping measures.
“They also give a middle finger to even warrants that have been issued by a court to provide information to help a police investigation,” the opposition leader pointed out, noting that many tech giants operate outside of Australian jurisdiction, making enforcement difficult.
Despite this, he remains firm in his belief that more needs to be done to protect vulnerable users, particularly children.
“We’ve got people who are relying on these networks for their businesses,” Dutton added, acknowledging that any action against these platforms would come with significant consequences for those who rely on them for their livelihood.
However, he stressed that the government must act in the best interest of its citizens, especially the safety of children. “They snub the laws that we’ve got here because they’re worried that if they comply, then other countries will implement the same laws,” he said.
Elon Musk
The “Evil Genius” behind tech giants
In a separate but related discussion, Dutton didn’t shy away from giving his opinion on Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X (formerly Twitter).
For the second time, Dutton referred to Musk as an “evil genius,” a remark that was met with laughter during Channel Seven’s leaders debate last weekend.