Online Safety Consultation

The internet brings many benefits to our lives, such as greater connectivity, knowledge sharing, convenience and entertainment and Australians are spending more time than ever on screens enjoying these benefits.

87% of Australia’s 24.93 million population surf the web on a regular basis. Indeed, 93% access the internet for personal use every day while 6% go online at least once per week. Australians average 9.4 hours of screen use per person per day.

With so much of our time now being spent online, and with the great influence that the internet and social media have, it is apparent that more could be done to ensure that the services provided by online platforms are safe for all users, especially children.

Online service providers have put in place initiatives in recent years to increase the safety of their platforms, however these initiatives are voluntary and perhaps do not go far enough, as end-users are still regularly exposed to harmful content and damaging experiences online.

Of particular concern are companies whose services host user-generated content and those who facilitate public or private online interaction between service users. Social media use in Australia accounts for 79.9% of the population and these companies have been largely unregulated.

Currently, a great deal of responsibility falls on the end-user to look after their own safety online. Without legislation in place to set minimum standards which service providers need to meet, there is little incentive for service providers to increase their share of the responsibility to protect end-users.

There is a balance to be achieved between the shared responsibilities of government, industry and individuals in achieving the best possible online safety and this consultation is seeking to gather opinions on how the responsibilities should be balanced and how far legislation should go in order to achieve this.

Online safety affects all Australians. This is your chance to have a say on the expectations that Government has for online service providers and to set the benchmark for online services to take proactive and preventative steps to protect Australians from abusive conduct and harmful content online.