What was probably the first serious national conversation about children and online pornography began nearly a decade ago, in 2017, when researchers began publishing findings about the age at which Australian children were first encountering explicit content.
It was younger, and more accidental, than almost anyone had assumed.
What then changed the political calculus was not a single event but an accumulation.
The 2019 Christchurch massacre – livestreamed on Facebook, mirrored across platforms within minutes – made the proposition that the internet could govern itself look untenable.
The internet was once celebrated for its ‘Wild West’ nature – a colourful place where anything was possible – but it has long lost its innocence.
The Covid pandemic accelerated children’s screen time, and the algorithmic radicalisation of teenage boys became a mainstream concern.
High-profile cases involving non-consensual intimate images....
