New Government Seeks Consultation on Measures to Enhance Online Safety for Children

Friday 7 February 2014 @ 11.11 a.m. | IP & Media | Trade & Commerce

Last month (January 2014) the Department of Communications published a discussion paper entitled "Enhancing Online Safety for Children - Public consultation on key election commitments" - in that paper is restated the commitment of the new government to "implementing a range of measures to improve the online safety of children in Australia".

The key measures that are listed include:

  • the establishment of a Children’s e-Safety Commissioner;
  • developing an effective complaints system, backed by legislation, to get harmful material down fast from large social media sites; and
  • examining existing Commonwealth legislation to determine whether to create a new, simplified cyber-bullying offence.

In comments reported by Delimiter, the Parliamentary Secretary to Communications, Liberal MP Paul Fletcher in speaking of the Discussion Paper is quoted as saying that ". . . while the Internet provided 'immense benefits' to children as much as to adults 'it can also bring dangers, . . .'" going on to say:

“It is clear that parents, and others caring for children, want more help and better tools to keep the children in their care as safe as possible when they use the Internet. The Children’s E-Safety Commissioner will be a single point of contact in the federal government for online safety issues for children.”

Establishment of a Children’s e-Safety Commissioner

This measure envisages a Commissioner established as a single point of contact for online safety issues for industry, Australian children and those charged with their welfare. The Commissioner will also take the lead across government in implementing policies to improve the safety of children online.

Functions for the position are listed as:

  • implementing the proposed scheme for the rapid removal of material that is harmful to a child from large social media sites;
  • working with industry to ensure that better options for smartphones and other devices and internet access services are available for parents to protect children from harmful content;
  • establishing an advice platform with guidelines for parents about the appropriateness of media content;
  • establishing a research fund to consider the effects of internet use on children, how support services can be provided online and how to mitigate children’s online risks;
  • establishing a voluntary process for the certification of online safety programmes offered within schools; and
  • establishing a funding programme for schools to deliver online safety education.

Effective Complaints System, and Removal of Harmful Material

In this respect, the Government proposes the introduction of a scheme to enable the rapid removal from large social media sites of material targeted at and likely to cause harm to a specific child. The proposed scheme will provide an independent and impartial third party to consider disagreements between social media sites and individuals on content complaints, where the content relates to a specific child in Australia.

The discussion paper asserts that by establishing the proposed scheme in legislation, the confidence and trust of Australian families in how social media sites deal with their concerns will be increased. However, it also points out that most social media sites are foreign and that legislative compliance and enforcement may be difficult to obtain and carry out. Also it should be noted that the proposed legislation would apply to individuals as well as companies as far as compelling the removal of harmful content is concerned.

Reaction and Response

Delimiter reports that the Government’s proposals have met quickly with opposition from companies with interests in the area of social media and internet communications - a joint statement being issued by the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association and its Digital Policy Group, Microsoft, Yahoo!7, Facebook, Freelancer, eBay, Google and Twitter.

Delimiter reports the response as:

“We share the Abbott Government’s commitment to keeping young Australians safe online and we invest heavily in tools and infrastructure to achieve this. However, the Government’s proposal to legislate a one-size fits all regime is counter productive to our own work and commitment to the safety of the people who use our services. Also the creation of a new statutory body and new regulation on complaints handling seems at odds with the Government’s stated strategy to reduce regulation and to streamline Government agencies.”

The companies quoted above and others in the industry all point out that specific tools targeted to the protection and safety of children online are already in existence and often provided by those very companies. At an international level most countries have not seen it necessary to go beyond the existing tools to protect children online.

Another point of criticism of the proposals is the claim that current evidence does not indicate a problem with how online content is reviewed and removed by online platforms and in fact some large industry players have already entered into a voluntary protocol with the Australian government dating as far back as January 2013. Further, the
government's approach seems to not recognise that existing laws, in areas like defamation already handle the dissemination by Australians of offensive material online.

Possibly the most telling flaw raised in the Government’s approach is that the approach assumes the internet and the technology that runs it is governable when in fact harmful content which is forced down from one site can quickly be reposted to another or even bounced to a site out of the jurisdictional reach of the government.

This is likely to be as interesting debate that will continue as the discussion paper and the legislation to follow are developed. Like the debate on the internet filter under the previous government it will not be an easy one for the government to win.

TimeBase is an independent, privately owned Australian legal publisher specialising in the online delivery of accurate, comprehensive and innovative legislation research tools including LawOne and unique Point-in-Time Products.

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