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KATE: Hi. So, I'm Kate. I'm a university student at UNSW studying arts and law. I've been doing debating since I was in Year 5, you know, did the Premier's Debating Challenge, did JSDC, JWSDC in Year 10 and CHSE Year 12. So, I'm here to talk about the topic that we should ban people under 18 from playing online games like Fortnite.

So, the first question I want to ask myself here is, where exactly should this take place. I think the most straightforward answer in this instance is all over Australia, in all Australian households. The next question to ask is then, what are the details.

So, I think that maybe what I should be thinking about here is, when we're thinking about things like Fortnite, is I'm asking myself, what exactly does 'like Fortnite' mean? I think there's probably two things that you can be thinking about. So, firstly, it's about the interactivity of the game. It's the fact that you can go online and see other, and talk to other people and be connected to strangers.

And, secondly, it's about the violence, so it's that you are rewarded for being a violent player. You, like, move up levels. You advance in the game. So, what I am thinking about then how I want to explain that when I'm giving the details, maybe I'd say that 'like Fortnite' means any game that is violent and that has interactive platforms on it.

Secondly, under the details, I want to ask myself how am I going to enforce this. It's probably a little bit too much in this instance to say that I want police going, doing door knocks, checking on who's playing what game inside. That's a little bit of overkill. We don't need to send, like, military squads out. We don't need to send people to gaol for this.

In this instance, I think it's OK to say that when you log on to play the game, you have to put in your details. If you think about doing online shopping and you're trying to buy alcohol, you would equally have to put in your age to make sure you're over 18. That's totally fine. And we can probably rely on parents and the game to enforce this, to make sure that no one's getting on to things they don't want to do. So, that's all the details done.

Then the last question, when is this going to happen. This is probably pretty straightforward. I don't think there's any real reason we have to delay for a while. We're going to say ASAP, maybe starting next week. This is going to be the plan.

So, the last thing that I need to do here before I'm ready to give my first affirmative speech is I have to work out what do I think is the biggest problem that my team is trying to fix in this debate. And there's probably a couple of different things I could think of. But I think the biggest thing is kind of what we identified in the detail section.

It's saying that it's a violent game, and that it's interactive. And so that's kind of going to be the thing that I focus on when I give my introduction. So, that means that when I give my first little bit of the first, I'm ready to give my first bit of my first affirmative speech. Woo.

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Go me! Welcome me, the first speaker of the affirmative team. Ready to go. So, ladies and gentlemen, there's a massive problem.

Children all over Australia are being exposed to incredibly violent video games, whether rewarded for, like, robbing and killing people, but even worse than that. They're playing with people over the age of 18, who are often swearing, who are very rude, and egg them on to be even more violent and aggressive in playing this game. That's why we're here to debate the topic that we should ban people under 18 from playing online games like Fortnite.

So, what's our plan for this? Where is this going to happen? This is going to happen in all Australian households.

What are the details? We think the details are pretty simple. When we say 'like Fortnite,' we mean that the game is violent and that has an interactive platform. Any game like that falls within our plan.

Secondly, under this, how are we going to do it? We're going to rely on the fact that parents and the game will enforce it. When you log on, you have to type in your age, prove who you are, and this is going to keep people under the age of 18 off the game.

When is this going to happen? It's going to happen ASAP. We're going to start enforcing it from next week. There's no reason to delay this change.