Ms Olga Cronin:

We must be really careful about what we are doing. This type of legislation is being seen across the world and we have seen Bills like this fall in other jurisdictions, such as in India and Canada. They are mentioned in our submission. That happened because this type of regulation is so difficult. The schoolchildren who came before the committee a few weeks ago were remarkable and their comments are valid. They spoke about the difference between a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old and how they can react to material online. There is a big difference between a 13-year-old, a 17-year-old, a 36-year-old and a 66-year-old but all that nuance of the different layers are not in the Bill. There does not appear to be an appreciation of the different capacity people have at different stages in their life and in different positions or levels of engagement online. Ultimately, this Bill will restrict speech that is not illegal. These are fundamental and core principles that are the bedrock of democracy.