Tech giants to implement child safety code

Australia’s eSafety commissioner has tasked the likes of Facebook and Twitter with better protecting children from violent pornographic content.

Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant.

Australia’s eSafety commissioner has asked the tech giants and other tech companies to develop new codes to tackle child sex abuse and other adult material after new research showing violent pornographic content has spiked online during the pandemic.

Julie Inman Grant, a former Twitter and Microsoft executive, has thrown down the gauntlet to the likes of Facebook and Instagram, which she said had not done a good enough job of protecting their users – particularly children – from accessing violent and extreme pornography.

Ms Inman Grant said that during the height of the Covid lockdown, her office conducted research that found a 650 per cent increase in child sexual abuse material on Instagram, and that other platforms including Twitter were also home to publicly available violent pornographic content.

“I’m hoping we can move from that dirt floor of commitment to online safety to a much higher set of standards,” she said.

“We need recognition that the platforms do have a responsibility to their users to keep them safer, particularly their most vulnerable users. We can achieve that right balance of allowing adult content that is legal to be enjoyed, behind closed doors, while children are better protected.”

The tech giants and other providers including search engines, dating apps, private messaging services and device manufacturers will now draft new codes, which will operate under Australia’s Online Safety Act, which became law in July. The codes are expected to include solutions to be deployed across pornographic sites and social media platforms including proactive human and machine monitoring, account suspensions, de-indexing of search results, and the use of forms of age assurance or parental controls.

If the industry is unable to establish appropriate codes, the eSafety Commissioner has the power under the Act to declare industry standards.

“This is world leading, and I really do believe you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar,” Ms Inman Grant said.

“Much of our success is contingent on working with industry and using the carrot to the extent we can, and then we’ve got sticks to use, but hard line regulation is the last resort.”

Sex worker organisations have warned they would be forced offline under a new code, but Ms Inman Grant said the efforts were not about “trying to get rid of all pornography”.

“We want the adult industry to continue producing, to continue flourishing, but to also make sure that children are protected from accessing that harmful content, because I think we’re actually getting to that tipping point where people are realising that some of the extreme violent content that’s out there isn’t the Penthouse in your dad’s sock drawer,” she said.

“It’s not just about targeting the porn sites or the industry, it’s about every player in the ecosystem that is enabling unfettered access to at least put some protections in there to prevent children from so readily accessing that content, because they’re just not developed enough, emotionally or cognitively.”

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said the federal government “expects the digital industry to do more to keep their users safe”.

“The Online Safety Act that comes into force in January requires new and updated industry codes to be developed, and includes examples of the matters that the government intends these new industry codes to address,“ he said.

“These include preventing children from setting up online accounts without the consent of an adult; ensuring that customers have access to a filtered internet service, should they choose to take it up; and providing information about online safety and procedures for dealing with prohibited and illegal online content.

“I look forward to a constructive engagement between eSafety and every section of the online industry—noting that the Act empowers the eSafety Commissioner to impose an industry standard if an appropriate code cannot be established.”

The codes are due by July 2022.