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       eSafety commissioner issues graphic online content ultimatum
        
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       eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant has given tech platforms six
       months to come up with an industry code that protects children from
       graphic content online.
        
       Online communications platforms and industry bodies will be obliged to
       show evidence of consultation before presenting a draft code by
       October 3, 2024, and a final code by December 19, 2024.
        
       The code will cover app stores and apps; websites, including porn
       websites; search engines; social media services; hosting services;
       internet service providers; instant messaging, SMS, chat, multi-player
       gaming, online dating services; and equipment providers.
        
       Inman Grant said tech platforms must take responsibility for their
       role in putting harmful content in front of young people.
        
       "Kids' exposure to violent and extreme pornography is a major concern
       for many parents and carers, and they have a key role to play both
       from a protective and educative standpoint. But it can't all be on
       them, we also need industry to play their part by putting in some
       effective barriers to protect children."
        
       "Our own research shows that while the average age when Australian
       children first encounter pornography is around 13, a third of these
       children are actually seeing this content younger and often by
       accident," She said.
        
       "The last thing anyone wants is children seeing violent or extreme
       pornography without guidance, context or the appropriate maturity
       levels because they may think that a video showing a man aggressively
       choking a woman during sex on a porn site is what consent, sex and
       healthy relationships should look like."
        
       The Office of the eSafety Commissioner's expectations for the code is
       a focus on pornography, but it will also be expected to cover other
       high-impact material like self-harm and disordered eating.
        
       The position paper is agnostic about how greater platform safety is
       achieved, but supplementary documents discuss age assurance and
       parental filters
        
       For Inman Grant, the central goal is preventing young people from
       seeing confronting content accidentally or without parental guidance.
       She said if industry could not make a workable code within the
       stipulated time, she would impose one on them.
        
       "It's not just porn sites we are talking about here … 60% of young
       people [told] us they were exposed to pornography on social media.
        
       "We want industry to succeed here and we will work with them to help
       them come up with codes that provide meaningful protections for
       children," she said.
        
       "However, if any code should fall short, under the Online Safety Act I
       have the power to set the rules for them by moving to standards."
        
       Inman Grant has spent much of 2024 sparring with social media
       companies over the publication of harmful content. This came to a head
       in April, when social platform X's CEO Elon Musk described her as
       "Australian censorship commissar" for ordering the platform to remove
       the video of the stabbing of bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel.
        
       Inman Grant told Senate estimates in May she didn't have the powers to
       make these takedown orders stick. This is a consequence of the design
       and physical infrastructure of platforms and the internet more
       broadly. While content can be geoblocked easily, this does not prevent
       internet users from using a virtual private network (VPN) to trick
       servers into believing they are accessing content from somewhere it
       has not been subject to a takedown order.
        
       In June, minister Michelle Rowland updated the Basic Online Safety
       Expectations (BOSE) to give the commissioner the power to demand the
       turnover of information, and issue formal warnings and fines.
        
       The code will work alongside current online safety measures, including
       the Restricted Access System, the Basic Online Safety Expectations,
       and the first phase of industry codes and standards. Other developing
       efforts include the Government's Age Assurance Trial, ongoing Privacy
       Act reforms, the statutory review of the Online Safety Act and the
       National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children.
        
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       **READ MORE:**
        
       **eSafety commissioner defends social media takedown orders**
        
        
        
        
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