Tribune’s note

Minister for Communications Anika Wells announced a $450,000 investment in the SmackTalk program, directing funds toward protecting young Australians from online sexual extortion [TA-260618-infras-b70a020ab2db]. The program will use the funding to train additional parents, community members and facilitators, and to develop free educational materials for wider distribution.

A specific objective is extending SmackTalk's coverage into regional and rural Australia, areas the release identifies as underserved by current online safety education. The announcement is grounded in Australian Institute of Criminology research showing more than one in ten adolescents has experienced sexual extortion, with one in three of those victimised more than once [TA-260618-infras-b70a020ab2db].

The Minister framed the SmackTalk investment as one component of a broader portfolio strategy that pairs targeted program funding with regulatory instruments — specifically the social-media minimum-age law and a digital duty of care framework — to address online harms across multiple vectors. That framing positions this relatively modest grant within a larger architecture of online safety policy the portfolio is advancing in parallel.

Primary records (1)

The official records this note draws on — the raw primary documents themselves, as published.

MediaExpanding Mac’s life-saving legacyAnika WellsThursday 18 June 2026