Lenora Qereqeretabua in her personal submission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice, Law and Human Rights on the Online Safety Bill says completely agrees that the internet should be made safer for everyone however the omission of any clear mention of the role of the Ministry of Education in the bill should be a cause for concern.
Qereqeretabua believes that the bill seems intended more to scare than to develop capacity for responsible online behavior and online safety.
She adds that there is no mention of the Ministry of Education in the purported objective to promote responsible online behavior and online safety.
Qereqeretabua says the use of the word Education twice in the bill is too weak and ambiguous.
She also says that she believes that increasing the resources of the Police Cyber Crime Unit and widening there powers would be wiser than setting up a whole new entity to police online behavior.
Qereqeretabua says with a new commission to be set up, it will only lead to duplication and this will be a grave issue to deal with.
She says that the Cyber Crime Unit of the Fiji Police Force should continue to be tasked with receiving and investigating complaints as they have already been doing this.
Qereqeretabua says the bill needs to be reviewed and amended.
