Bills

Criminal Law Consolidation (Dishonest Communication with Children) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 10 May 2018.)

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (11:56): I am glad I spelt it out. It took those opposite a moment or two.

Mr Picton: It will be in Hansard forever.

Mr TEAGUE: It took those opposite a moment or two but, clear from the outset, I was proudly speaking in support of the Criminal Law Consolidation (Dishonest Communication with Children) Amendment Bill 2018. I continue my remarks. As I have indicated, I was proud to be present in this chamber on 10 May when the bill was introduced. Sonya Ryan was present on that day, and I recognise her presence in the chamber again today. I thank you for being here, Sonya.

In 2006, Carly Ryan thought she had met her dream boyfriend online. The online caricature who engaged with Carly at that time was said to be an 18-year-old musician from Melbourne by the name of Brandon Kane. In fact, no such person existed. Brandon was a fiction; he was a construct of a paedophile by the name of Garry Francis Newman, who was a 50-year-old predator. Tragically, in 2007 Garry Newman, having convinced Carly to meet with him, ultimately took Carly to a secluded beach at Port Elliott. He there bashed her, put her face in the sand, suffocating her, and he then threw her into the water to drown. She was 15 years old.

Within 11 days, detectives located Mr Newman in Victoria. They found him at his computer, logged in, seeking to engage with a 14-year-old girl in Western Australia. They arrested him, charging him with Carly's murder. In the trial in the Supreme Court of South Australia, which continued over an extended period, a jury ultimately found Garry Francis Newman guilty of murder. He was sentenced on 31 March 2010. Justice Trish Kelly sentenced him to serve life behind bars, with a 29-year non-parole period.

In sentencing Garry Newman, Justice Kelly observed that he deserved a life behind bars for his grossly perverted plan to deceive, seduce and murder Carly. 'It was a terribly cruel thing you did to this beautiful, impressionable 15yr old child,' Justice Kelly said. 'I say child because that's what she was, a child that fell in love with the idea of the handsome, musically inclined and rather exotic Brandon Kane, the real man was in fact an overweight, balding, middle aged paedophile with sex and murder on his mind.' Justice Kelly went on to say, 'You were sexually obsessed with Carly to the degree that when you couldn't get your own way, you prepared to and did kill her.'

In the words of her mother, Carly was a beautiful, sensitive, loving and amazing young lady with her whole life ahead of her. For Carly, her dreams, goals and future were taken away by a selfish, twisted, deviant sex predator.

The bill before the house would introduce into the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 new section 139A, 'Dishonest communication with children'. It would provide that a person of or over the age of 18 years, who knowingly communicates with a child and makes a false representation in such a communication that the person is younger than they are or is someone other than they are, and who meets or arranges to meet with the child, is guilty of an offence with a maximum penalty of imprisonment for five years.

It would further provide that a person of or over the age of 18 years who knowingly communicates with a child and makes a false representation in such communication that the person is younger than they are, or is someone other than they are, with intent to commit an offence against a child is guilty of an offence with a maximum penalty of imprisonment for 10 years. These are the insidious criminal behaviours that this bill would directly address, with serious penalties for these serious offences.

Carly's mum, Sonya, incorporated the Carly Ryan Foundation. Rather than dwelling in her grief and devastation at what happened to Carly, as would be completely understandable in all of the circumstances, Sonya has displayed exemplary strength and dedication to turn that devastating event into something we can all benefit from. Her aim was to do two things: both to create awareness of what had occurred and to educate children and parents about using the internet and interacting with all of the technology that is now so much a part of daily life and which particularly involves children nowadays from a very young age.

Sonya is a constituent of mine, and the foundation office is located in Heysen, at Stirling. I am proud to have got to know Sonya over the last years: firstly, as a grateful parent, as my daughters have attended her education sessions via their local primary school; and, secondly, as a candidate for election over the course of the last year and now working with her, I am proud to say, as her local MP. As a small point of connection, we can be sure to find information, ably provided by the foundation, readily available at my electorate office as well. Spreading the word and advancing the advocacy of the foundation is something that I am very proud to do.

I am also proud to have the opportunity to be working with Sonya as part of this new government, committed to recognising and supporting the work of committed local people who take initiatives of this kind to strengthen community and build resilience. As has been said so often over recent times, Sonya and others like her do the work that no government can do on its own. In commending this bill to the house, I particularly wish to recognise Sonya and the good work of the foundation.

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (12:06): I rise to speak on this very important piece of legislation.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Kaurna, you are the lead speaker?

Mr PICTON: Yes, that is correct. I rise to indicate the Labor Party and the opposition's support for the Criminal Law Consolidation (Dishonest Communication with Children) Amendment Bill 2018, otherwise known as Carly's Law. Under this legislation, any adult who lies about their age or pretends to be someone other than they are and attempts to meet with a child or attempts to commit an offence will be severely punished. This important legislation—which has become widely known as Carly's Law—has come about in the most tragic circumstances.

There is nothing that anyone anywhere, including those in this chamber, can say to take away the pain and anguish that Carly Ryan's family and friends will experience for the rest of their lives following Carly's heart-wrenching death in 2007. I note there are family members here in the chamber today. Carly was ripped from the lives of her family far too early. At 15, she was contacted online by an adult predator, who pretended to be a teenage boy and who groomed, deceived and killed her. This is not fair; this should never have happened. We hope this legislation will help our police intercept predators before they can harm our precious children.

This amendment will introduce two new offences. The first new offence will apply wherever an adult communicates with a child and lies about their age or identity and seeks to meet with that child. The second new offence is where an adult communicates with a child and lies about their age or identity with the intent of committing an offence against that child. The previous government supported the introduction of this legislation in the lead-up to the 2018 election, and Labor continues to do so in opposition. It is important that this law be implemented.

This legislation will make it an offence, with a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment, for a person to communicate with a child and lie about being younger than they are or about being someone else and to meet or arrange to meet that child. It will also make it an offence, with a maximum of 10 years' imprisonment, for a person to communicate with a child and say that they are younger than they really are, or that they are someone else, and also have the intention of committing a crime against a child.

The internet is an important and positive resource in our modern lives, but it does pose dangers for our children. It is vital that we, as adults and parents, become more aware of those dangers and that our police are armed with laws that will punish those who misuse this valuable resource. It is an unfortunate part of the world we live in that not everyone's actions are steeped in good intentions. For predators who intend to harm our children, the opportunity for anonymity is provided all too easily through the internet.

It would be remiss, at this time, not to pay tribute to the hard and tireless work of the Carly Ryan Foundation. The foundation was formed by Carly's mum, Sonya. As the website states, their aim is to create awareness and educate children and parents using the internet. She will work to expose the thousands of multiple identities paedophiles use to lure young children. Labor's shadow attorney-general from the other place, the Hon. Kyam Maher MLC, has met with the Carly Ryan Foundation on a number of occasions, and we commend Sonya and the rest of Carly's family for their bravery in advocating during this difficult time in their lives. In a media statement about the introduction of this legislation released earlier this month, Sonya Ryan said:

Knowing our home state will soon have a law named after my beautiful daughter that will help police catch predators before they harm children, is an indescribable feeling.

Sonya and all those involved with the Carly Ryan Foundation may never know exactly the enormous difference this will make in our communities, but they will know that Carly's name will be attached to a law that will work towards stopping these online predators in their tracks before they can harm any more South Australian children and devastate any more South Australian families. With those words, I indicate Labor's support for this legislation and commend the bill to the house.

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (12:10): I rise to support the Criminal Law Consolidation (Dishonest Communication with Children) Amendment Bill. The state Liberal government has introduced legislation to protect young people from online predators, and I am proud that we have taken this step early in the life of this parliament. The shocking death of Carly Ryan in 2007 highlighted the dangers of young people being deceived by online predators in circumstances carefully related to the house by the member for Heysen. There is a need for the law to impose severe penalties on those who try to manipulate and deceive children in the circumstances my friend has outlined.

Carly was pursued online by a man who pretended to be a teenage boy. The court recognised that that man groomed, deceived and subsequently murdered Carly after she rejected his advances. It was an honour to meet and speak again with Sonya Ryan, Carly's mother, at Parliament House on the sitting day last Thursday before parliament rose. As many people in our community will know, Sonya has led a brave and determined campaign to strengthen laws protecting children. With Ms Ryan present to observe, we introduced the Criminal Law Consolidation (Dishonest Communication with Children) Amendment Bill, which, as the house is aware, proposes new offences.

The first new offence would make it an offence punishable by a maximum of five years' gaol for a person to knowingly communicate with a child and to make a false statement that they are younger than they are or someone other than who they are while attempting to meet, or in fact meeting, with a child. The second offence would make it an offence punishable by a maximum of 10 years' gaol for a person with the intention of committing an offence against a child to knowingly communicate with a child and to make false statements that the person is younger than they are or someone other than who they are.

Information technology is reaching further and further into people's lives, but it now reaches also into children's lives. The offences in the bill apply to persons who are over the age of 18 years and a child is defined as a person under the age of 17 years. Importantly, we have drafted the bill in a way that we hope will give police the power to intervene before an offender actually comes into contact with or causes harm to a child, whether through grooming or through direct contact.

Regrettably, the commonwealth act regarding these matters deals with offending relating to carriage services and is limited importantly in that way. As a result, there are serious gaps in the federal law. The commonwealth legislation does not cover every instance where a person lies about who they are or how young they are while meeting or attempting to meet a child. Our bill makes it an offence in whatever circumstances for a person to lie to a child about who they are or how young they are while arranging to meet them or in fact meeting them.

We want to give South Australian police in this context every available tool to allow them to swoop early in circumstances where experience tells us that great harm is imminent or may be caused. By criminalising certain conduct that experience tells us is likely to precede serious offending against a child, we are putting in place a very practical framework for police in South Australia. In this legislation, we have used the word 'communication' deliberately, with a view, as I foreshadowed, to changing technology to the future generally.

We are deeply thankful to Ms Ryan and to the foundation for the substantial work done to educate the community, parents and children about the safe use of the internet. As Ms Ryan has pointed out, the internet is a valuable tool for communication and education, but when somebody with a prurient interest uses the internet to harm children, there must be a practical and useful framework to both deter potential offenders and assist police in their work. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr MURRAY (Davenport) (12:15): I rise to speak in support of the Criminal Law Consolidation (Dishonest Communication with Children) Amendment Bill 2018, otherwise known as Carly's Law. Before I move on, I also wish to acknowledge Sonya Ryan and, in particular, attest to the outstanding work she has done with the foundation, given that the communication methodologies now in place are a sizeable issue. I speak as someone with a background in internet-based software. I can, as a result, attest to the industrialised or scaled-up capacity that modern communication methods provide not just for good but also for harm.

I am very proudly the president of the Norwood basketball club, which is the largest sporting club in the state, with in excess of 2,800 children registered as players. I can attest to the necessity for aggressive and proactive measures to enable the protection of children in an environment such as that. Our club has a comprehensive child protection policy, but the bill will substantially enhance those measures.

The bill is named in memory of Carly Ryan, who was cruelly taken from her loved ones in 2007 at the age of 15. Carly should have been 26 years of age now. As the father of a daughter of a similar age, I am acutely aware of the responsibility that we in this place have and the opportunity the bill provides to us to execute that responsibility on behalf of our community. Put simply, the bill is founded upon the premise of prevention of harm to children. The bill is founded on the entirely reasonable premise that there is no excuse or justification for an adult to communicate with a child and, in doing so, lie about their age and/or their identity.

As other speakers have pointed out, the act seeks to prevent the knowing communication with and intention to lie to a minor, with a penalty of five years in the event that there is an intention or an attempt to arrange a meeting with the child. There is a further penalty of a maximum of 10 years for communication knowingly made and intentionally designed to mislead with, at its heart, the intention to commit an offence. The act effectively seeks to prevent grooming; that is, it enables the prosecution of someone before they have had a chance to come into physical contact with or cause harm to a child

The bill is not confined to regulating merely online or internet-based communication, although this is the usual conduit for the behaviour it seeks to prevent. Communication can take any form. The member for Kavel has pointed out that, by constructing the bill in this fashion, it takes care of any future communication methodologies that technology may provide. However, I also point out that in the case of Carly, her murderer made contact by telephone as well as online. So the wording is deliberate in that regard. It also provides for an offence to 'knowingly communicate'—that is, the communication must be deliberately designed to lie to or to mislead a child.

The bill provides our community and, in particular, those tasked with the protection of its most vulnerable members with the ability to intervene before harm is caused. This preventative measure sets this bill apart from similar measures implemented in other jurisdictions. It is in response to a request for this capability so as not to have to wait until contact is made and/or harm is actually done. There is no need to prove an intention to cause harm, unlike other jurisdictions—that is, there is no justification for an adult to communicate with the child and in doing so to lie about their age and/or their identity.

I acknowledge that the bill would prescribe a situation in which, for example, an 18 year old knowingly misleads a 16 year old to believe that the 18 year old was in fact 25, by way of example. My response in that situation is that we, as a society, already charge the 18 year old with responsibilities in many other respects by virtue of their status as an adult. I reiterate, not to knowingly communicate with a child with an intention to lie or deceive is not, in my view, an unreasonable responsibility given the intention of the bill.

This bill is an opportunity for us to proactively protect our current and future generations. It is a first in many respects in Australian jurisdictions. To my mind, it is a self-evident response to what is a self-evident issue. I commend the work of the foundation and I commend this bill to the house.

Dr HARVEY (Newland) (12:21): I rise today to support this bill to amend the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 also known as Carly's Law. As others have done, I would like to acknowledge Carly's mum, Sonya Ryan, in the chamber today, and I congratulate her on all her wonderful work that I very strongly believe will go a long way to protecting many children into the future.

This bill is an important step in protecting our children from some of the worst kinds of predators in our community—a special kind of depraved, manipulative, evil individuals. These individuals, at the end of the day, are solely responsible for the evil that they perpetrate. However, what we can do here in this place is to put in place measures to enable authorities to get to these people earlier than they can now.

The online world offers so much potential to do so much good but, as is the case with any powerful tool, there is enormous potential for great harm. The online world has transformed incredibly rapidly, so fast in many ways that we have across the board really struggled to keep up—that is, whether it is legislators here, law enforcement agencies, schools or even as parents. In fact, the school that my children attend is a primary school and it has held a number of cyber safety sessions. Indeed, one of them was by Sonya Ryan and I will never forget that session. It had an enormous impact on everyone who was there.

There have been a couple of others organised by other people, as well. On one occasion, there was a session for the parents in the evening, but they had also held one during the day with the students. One of the points mentioned to the parents from the student sessions was when they asked the children in the room—keeping in mind these are from year 4 to year 7—how many had Facebook accounts and the vast majority of the audience put their hands up. These are kids aged from about eight through to 12 or 13. I think about 60 per cent or 70 per cent of kids put their hand up. Then they were asked how many had more than 100 friends on Facebook and about half the room put their hand up.

I do not know about you, Mr Deputy Speaker, but at that age I probably did not know 100 people, let alone have 100 friends, and therefore it is incredible how many of those people they probably did not even really know. Moreover, there are other platforms now like Snapchat, that allow messages, images and videos to be sent between individuals without really even keeping a record. There has also been a recent study by the Australian psychological association that has found that 15 per cent of teenagers reported being contacted by strangers daily, and nearly 10 per cent actively communicating with strangers.

While these platforms have become much easier to use and much more embedded throughout society, and devices have become much more mobile, essentially our kids now can be communicating with someone they do not know, anywhere in the world, from their bedroom. Our young people, particularly teenagers, are at an age commonly associated with rebelling from parents, wanting to fit in amongst peers, making them particularly vulnerable to manipulation by predators online, and we have seen the disastrous consequences that that can lead to.

This bill creates two new offences with appropriately strong penalties attached. If an adult knowingly communicates with someone under the age of 17 and lies about their age or identity, and meets with them, or even arranges to meet with them, then they are liable for a maximum prison term of five years. If an adult knowingly communicates with someone under the age of 17 and lies about their age or identity, and has the intent to cause an offence against them, then they are liable for a maximum prison term of 10 years. This will allow for early intervention by police in cases of suspected grooming.

While there are federal laws that to some extent address predatory communications online, at the state level there is much that we can do to further widen the ambit of prohibited behaviour to prevent adults from grooming children. There is no good reason for an adult to communicate with someone under the age of 17 and lie about their age or identity, and there is absolutely no good reason for them to seek to meet. Importantly, under this bill, that attempt need not be successful or even be responded to by the child to be unlawful, which is exactly as it should be. It is essential to provide our law enforcement agencies and our courts with the ability to intervene early before there is harm.

As I described earlier, the online world is changing rapidly and this presents many opportunities but also many very serious and terrifying risks, particularly for our younger people. As a father myself, and, as I am sure is the case for everyone in this place, we hold the protection of our children as the highest priority. In the world of cybersecurity and online safety, there is much more work for us all to do, and this is right across the community, not just here. I do very strongly believe that what is being proposed here today will go a long way to protect our children from predators in our community, and I commend the bill to the house.