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Australian eSafety Commissioner lays down the new rules for ISPs, media companies, app stores and more.
New industry codes to tackle the “worst of the worst” content online will come into effect starting tomorrow, 16 December.
The new codes will require “social media companies, app stores, internet service providers, hosting providers, device manufacturers and suppliers” to do more to combat harmful content such as child sexual abuse material and content that supports terrorist ideologies.
The codes will also allow for complaints to be made by Australians against social media sites if they are found not to meet the new requirements. Social media sites will also need to provide “safety information and reporting tools” to handle any such complaints.
Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s eSafety commissioner, said that the codes were drafted in collaboration with industry and will help make Australia a safer place online.
“Having mandatory and enforceable codes in place which put the onus back on industry to take meaningful action against the worst of the worst content appearing on their products and services is a tremendously important online safety milestone,” Inman Grant said in a statement.
“I think, today more than ever, the Australian community expects the online industry to take all reasonable steps to prevent their services from being used to store, share and distribute horrific content like child sexual abuse and terrorist material.
“Unfortunately, these steps have not always been taken. These mandatory codes give those sectors covered by the codes a clear and agreed blueprint for how they tackle this illegal content going forward.
“We started this codes journey with industry over two years ago, and while the road hasn’t always been smooth, what we have achieved together culminating in today with these five codes is very significant, world-leading and will have a real impact when it comes to the online safety of all Australians.”
Alongside the five codes that come into effect tomorrow, a sixth code concerning search engines is being redrafted to account for the rise of generative AI models. Two further codes to cover gaming, online dating, and messaging services are currently in draft form for public consideration.
Briony Camp, International Justice Mission Australia’s policy and campaigns lead, has said the new regulations are an important step towards protecting children.
“The eSafety Commissioner’s world-leading tech sector regulation is essential to tackling the growing problem of the online sexual exploitation of children by reducing the availability of child sexual abuse material online,” Camp said.
“With Australians consistently ranking among the top consumers of online child sexual abuse material from the Philippines, it is imperative we continue to act to curb online sexual abuse of vulnerable children, including through strengthened tech industry regulation.”
However, some in the industry feel the draft proposals covering messaging services are unworkable in their current form.
“These proposals could not only force companies to bypass their own encryption, but could put businesses and citizens at risk while doing little to protect people from the online harms they are intended to address,” Proton Mail founder Andy Yen told The Guardian, after he and more than 300 other tech companies signed an open letter saying they were "against creating standards that would force encrypted services to implement such scanning measures as they would create an unreasonable and disproportionate risk of harm to individuals and communities".
Yen has said he would fight any such proposals in an Australian court if need be.
“We didn’t change our product or break encryption in Iran, or in Russia, and we won’t in Australia either,” Yen said. “However we have no intention of leaving Australia. Should we receive an enforcement notice to break end-to-end encryption we would be prepared to fight it in the courts.”
Illegal content can be reported to eSafety at esafety.gov.au/report.
Update 15/12/23 to add Proton Mail commentary.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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