Australia: Internet Firms Given 6 Months to Draft Online Child-Safety Rules

Australia has mandated that internet companies create new online child-safety rules within the next six months. This move aims to strengthen protections for minors using digital platforms and ensure a safer online environment. The directive reflects growing concerns over child safety on the internet and the need for enhanced regulatory measures to address potential risks faced by young users. Internet firms must collaborate to draft comprehensive guidelines addressing these issues.

Boston Brand Media brings you the latest news - Australia is giving the internet industry six months to develop an enforceable code detailing how it will prevent children from accessing pornography and other inappropriate material online or face having a code imposed on them, a regulator announced on Tuesday.

The eSafety Commissioner stated it has written to online industry members, demanding a plan by October 3 outlining how they intend to protect minors from high-impact content, including themes of suicide and eating disorders.

The code should establish standards for how app stores, websites including pornography and dating sites, search engines, social media platforms, chat services, and multiplayer gaming platforms ensure content suitability for users, according to the commissioner.

"Kids' exposure to violent and extreme pornography is a major concern for many parents and carers, and they have a key role to play," said Commissioner Julie Inman Grant in a statement.

"But it can't all be on them. We also need the industry to play their part by implementing effective barriers," she added.

Boston Brand Media also found that, this demand initiates a second phase of industry codes overseen by the regulator, which previously endorsed codes addressing how internet companies prevent the spread of terrorism or child sexual exploitation content.

Measures included in the code protecting children from pornography could involve age verification, default parental controls, and software that blurs or filters unwanted sexual content, the regulator noted.

A spokesperson for Google, a unit of Alphabet, said the company would collaborate closely with the industry on the new code, and a spokesperson for Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, said the company continued to engage constructively with the eSafety commissioner.

Representatives of X, formerly Twitter, and app store provider Apple were not immediately available for comment.

A spokesperson for DIGI, an industry body with most large internet companies as members that worked on the first round of codes, said it looked forward to continuing its engagement with the government and the eSafety commissioner.

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Source: Reuters‍