Nine sports presenter Erin Molan has made a passionate call for a rethink on combating online trolls, saying that the onus to act was still being forced on victims.
Molan said that trolls should face the prospect of jail time. She said that children should be strongly dissuaded against becoming online bullies via school education programs.
Herself a victim of relentless and vicious online attacks, Molan said that victims could no longer be asked to cope with abuse while action against trolls was inadequate.
The Nine NRL host has spoken out on a topic close to her heart while Brisbane Broncos coach Anthony Seibold is fighting against a vile online smear campaign.
"I've been lobbying the government for probably over a year now on this topic," Molan told Weekend TODAY.
"First of all, this isn't about me. I've been the victim of some of the most horrific trolling and abuse online for the better part of a decade. I am essentially immune to it. I see it for what it is.
"This is about other people. This is about young people, this is about every Australian having the right to feel safe online.
"I just think there's real issues at the moment with what we are doing with this. I think the entire focus of campaigns at the moment, and when people go into schools, is on coping mechanisms for the victim.
"That is ridiculous. That doesn't work. We've got to look at the punishments for the perpetrators and I think that's where we need to change tack.
"It's not effective, telling trolls that people are hurt by this. It's not effective showing the dire consequences; and let me tell you, there are dire consequences. People take their lives, strong people take their lives, because of bullying online.
"Anthony Seibold is not on social media, he's still a victim of this. This impacts every single person in this country.
"We no longer have the luxury of just saying, 'Get offline'. It doesn't work. Society is now online, whether you like it or not. People need to be held accountable.
"We go into schools and it's wonderful, it's lovely and we say to young kids, 'If you are being bullied, you go tell a teacher or you just ignore it, you block them. You report them, don't let it get to you, build your resilience'.
"No - we should be going into schools and telling every little kid, 'If you bully online, if you write something online that isn't true that hurts someone, if you threaten someone's life online, if you use hate speech online, you'll be getting offline, you'll be going to juvenile detention, your prospects of getting a job later on will be almost zilch, you may not be able to travel overseas. Once you turn 18, if you keep doing it, you'll be going to jail'. That's what will work."
Molan said that it was high time for the government to act, forcing social media companies to also get on board.
"It's incredibly hard and this is why you need social media companies to come on board with this," Molan said.
"But the first thing you need is a government to come on board with this. I've had meetings with the communications minister, Paul Fletcher, really good meetings, really healthy meetings. I genuinely have faith in the government to do something about this.
"Every person that's online, including politicians, have been the victim to this kind of thing. Everyone knows it's a huge issue, it's about making it happen; not just continually pushing it aside because there's 'more important' things to do.
"This is very, very important to do. Yes, it's complex, it will take time, but it's got to be a priority because people are losing their life over this kind of stuff.
"It's got to be a priority. We've got to create the legislation first, we've got to change the laws.
"And you know what, if Instagram and Facebook and Twitter don't want to get on board with our laws in this country, then they can go away. They won't be able to run in this country and I tell you what, they generate a lot of money through advertising in this country on these platforms.
"So if the government gets tough, the social media companies - I promise you - will get on board."
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from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/erin-molan-online-bullying-trolling-passionate-call-for-rethink-jail-time/6a65939b-fefe-44a4-9ce3-37f9d3b42e07
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