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PM announces war on social media trolls

Scott Morrison says a re-elected Coalition government would crack down on social media trolls.

Troll internet social media acronyms text message abbreviations slang

Troll internet social media acronyms text message abbreviations slang (lol. rofl, rotfl, lolz, lmao, wtf...). Source: Getty Images

A lot has changed in the world since a young Scott Morrison went to school, in no small part thanks to the dawn of the internet.

Speaking with a group of primary school-aged children on the NSW central coast, the prime minister was keen to make that fact known.

"When we went to school, you used to have to bring your homework home in a book," he told the group on Sunday.

Mr Morrison spoke with the young people in a hall in Bateau Bay before they received a video lesson on cyber safety from Australian educational mascot Healthy Harold, in the confined darkness of a blow-up tent.

The lesson came as the Coalition has vowed to keep Australian children and adults safer on the web by cracking down on online trolls.

Under their proposed measures, people found guilty of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence would be jailed for up to five years, instead of three.

New offences would also be created, capturing people who provide electronic services to facilitate dealings with child abuse material, and those who groom third parties using the post or a carriage service, to procure children for sexual activity.


2 min read

Published

By Saleem Al-Fahad



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