Mr. Toby Dagg:

The role of the plaintiff in the context that the commissioner explained is a crucial one. It is backed by some clear legal thresholds in the Act. They set out a high bar for us to meet, in relation to child cyberbullying. Importantly, where the definition of child cyberbullying is concerned, we can also taken into consideration the characteristics of the child. These are essential. A child who presents with particular vulnerabilities may be effected badly by a degree of harassment or intimidation that may be below the threshold for serious distress in the case of another child. When we explain the full circumstances to the social media platforms, we are able to bring into that conversation facts that might be apparent to a moderator, or an officer that just assesses the material on its face. We serve as a safety net. The first thing a person needs to show when they come through our doors is that they have made a complaint to the social media platform about the relevant material. This is so the social media platform can consider that complaint against their terms of service. When we have that conversation with the social media platform, we often talk about cultural, social, or individual factors that will likely have been missed at a first pass through. This is simply because of the volume and velocity of matters that those moderators need to assess.

I will give the committee a good example to illustrate what I mean. We were dealing with a matter a couple of years ago that involved some video footage that had been provided on a social media platform. It depicted girls from a remote community in Central Australia; it was an Aboriginal community. It is common in Aboriginal communities to be careful about naming deceased people. There is a strong cultural prohibition against that. This video had presented images of the deceased person. The video also named that person. The video was trying to cause distress part of the community and specific individuals in the community. To a person who is not familiar with the Australian context, the significance of that material would have been missed. It caused immense pain within the community. The person who was depicted had taken her own life. She was only a 15-year-old girl. By explaining this to the social media platform, we were able to have that material taken down. When it comes to the question of the "behaviour", that Senator Byrne asked about, part of our job is to educate the social media platforms about the significance of our local context, notwithstanding any sheer application of regulatory principle.