Amaze welcomes Minister for Communications and eSafety Commissioner to our office

Pictured: The Hon. Michelle Rowland, Minister for Communications, Julie Inman Grant, eSafety Commissioner, and the Amaze team.

Amaze was delighted to have the Hon. Michelle Rowland, Minister for Communications, and Julie Inman Grant, eSafety Commissioner, visit our office on Tuesday 16 May. The eSafety Commissioner is Australia’s independent regulator for online safety and drives critical work in keeping Australians safe online.  

Minister Rowland and Ms. Inman Grant met Amaze staff, learned more about our current projects and held a press conference to discuss the Labor Government’s recent commitment to further funding of the Commission and the work they do with organisations and the community to empower all Australians to have positive online experiences. Amaze was a recent recipient of the eSafety’s Online Grants Program, being funded to create resources to support Autistic children and young people to have positive, safe and healthy video gaming habits.

“It’s been a real delight to understand the way in which the work of the eSafety Office in collaboration with Amaze is really making a difference to lives. I really appreciate the engagement here and how what you’ve actually been able to do can feed into the work of eSafety and the great work Julie and her investigations team are doing,” said Minister Rowland.

“There’s so much innovation and creativity in the NGO sector here and to be able to give these [grants] to an organisation that is working on co-design, and developed really authentic resources that are not only useful for those in the Autistic community, but also their carers and their parents,” said Ms Inman Grant.

Pictured left to right: Amaze CEO Jim Mullan, the Hon. Michelle Rowland, Minister for Communications and Julie Inman Grant, eSafety Commissioner

“I actually learned a lot looking at the resources and I applied them to my own kids, in terms of what does healthy gaming look like and when does it veer into the lane of unhealthy – what are the signs? – because sometimes there is a really fine line.”

Amaze CEO Jim Mullan said the resources are useful to those in the Autistic community – but also have a wider application for all people.

“The truth is Autistic people’s engagement is different. The way they engage is different. The way they participate is different. And understanding that nuanced approach is part of what we tried to unpack in the creation of these resources,” Mr Mullan said.

“Having said that, I think the resources that have been created have a universal value I think for almost any parent, or any young person who is looking to step into online video gaming, understand it and understand how to keep themselves safe in that space. I think this work is beyond our community.”

We look forward to continuing to work together with the eSafety Commissioner in the future to create a safe, autism inclusive digital landscape for Autistic people and their families.