Proposed new laws would require online services to better protect Australians from serious online harm.
The Australian Government has introduced a bill to the Parliament to establish a digital duty of care to protect Australians from serious online harm and provides more choice over what they see online.
The proposed laws would require online services--including games, social media platforms and artificial intelligence chatbots—to adhere to a set of minimum safety standards. Services would need to take action to protect Australians from a defined list of seriously harmful material and conduct, including violent extremist material, sadistic online exploitation, child abuse and fake nude material
They will also need to protect children from harmful material, conduct and features. This includes pornography, content that glorifies crime or life-endangering stunts, causes serious mental distress, encourages eating disorders or promotes hostility towards women.
Under the proposed laws, social media services will need to let users decide whether their feed contains algorithm-recommended content, or content from the people and pages they follow.
Consultation on this rule, which will enable the My Feed, My Way initiative, is now open at the department’s website.
The reforms would also allow the eSafety Commissioner to issue removal notices for apps and websites designed or predominantly used to generate fake nude material of people, respond to cyberbullying and abuse complaints in 24 instead of 48 hours and set minimum standards for complaints and disputes processes.
Services that do not comply with the digital duty of care could face penalties of up to $109.2 million.
The reforms build on Australia’s social media minimum age laws and strengthen the government’s approach to online safety.
Find out more
- Read the Minister’s media release
- Learn more about online safety reforms
Have your say on the rules around opting out of algorithm recommended content.