At age 15, Adelaide school student Carly Ryan was brutally murdered by a 50-year-old man that had posed as a teenage boy on the internet.
Carly was bashed, suffocated and thrown into the ocean to drown in 2007 by Gary Newman, who had posed as the teenage boy online.
Ten years on, Carly’s mother, Sonya Ryan, has led a passionate campaign for tougher laws to protect children against online predators.
Yesterday, Sonya watched in federal parliament as a new law, dubbed ‘Carly’s Law’ was passed. The legislation will target predators who lie about their age and make it easier for police to intervene before online predators act, SBS reports.
“It’s absolutely overwhelming for me to think that she didn’t go through all that suffering for nothing,” Sonya said.
Sonya also explained that “all I can think about is Carly,” the ABC reports.
“To know that police now have the powers to intervene before a child is harmed.
“I think about what Carly would say and I just can’t image what she would say to me today (Thursday) — that there is a law in her name to protect children from harm.”
She added: “To actually get this legislation passed to protect children is huge and a real step in protecting our innocent, vulnerable, beautiful kids that are just trying to connect in the online space and should be able to do so without having to worry about being taken advantage of, or hurt or worse by a criminal trying to infiltrate their lives.”
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