Social media companies, app stores, internet service providers and many others will need to take action to tackle the so-called "worst of the worst" online content.
That's because five new industry codes are coming into force, created by the government's online safety regulator.
Australia's eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, says this is an Australian milestone for online safety.
"I think most Australians would be very surprised that there are not any binding codes or standards anywhere in the world that require specific sectors of the technology industry to tackle things like child sexual abuse material, or terrorist and violent extremist content. So these are really significant, and they are mandatory industry codes that were developed by the industry themselves."
Ms Grant explains how the new codes are set to work.
"These particular five codes will require social media companies, app stores, internet service providers, hosting providers, and what we often call enterprise hosting providers like Microsoft or AWS, device manufacturers and suppliers to take meaningful action to tackle the worst of the worst online content, including child sexual abuse material and pro terrorist content. And this sort of recognises that every piece of the technology stack, every player has some role to play in terms of detecting, removing, deterring, and disrupting this kind of horrific content. And they're specific to each code section."
The rapid pace of technological change has caused big challenges in guaranteeing online safety.
Lilly Vongratsavai [[von-grah-tsah-vay]]is an online social media strategist.
She says that regulating media content has been a long-standing battle.
"There have been previous attempts to regulate online content through various guidelines and policies. However, their effectiveness was limited due to the rapid evolution of online platforms. In most recent years, we've seen the explosion of TikTok and short form video content. And this makes enforcing enforcement rubber quite challenging. So measures struggled to adapt to emerging online threats effectively."
The new industry codes will allow individual Australians to make complaints to a social media service if the service is not meeting the requirements of the new industry codes.
If a complaint is not resolved, Australians can seek assistance from eSafety via an industry codes complaints form.
Mr Grant says eSafety has the power to investigate and take enforcement action, including injunctions and fines.
"So this will give members of the Australian public, or other interested organisations the ability, let's just say they see terrorist content that appears to violate a social media sites policies, if they report it and it doesn't come down, or they keep seeing the same content, they can report through this codes violation process. Our investigators will launch an investigation and then we can police in a number of ways."
The codes require services to provide security information and reporting tools to respond to user complaints according to a regulatory standard.
eSafety has postponed its decision on a sixth code covering search engines, as it did not adequately take into account the rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence [[AI]] into online searching.
A redrafted code was registered by eSafety in September and will come into force in March 2024.
Two other codes to cover gaming, online dating and messaging services are currently being drafted for public consideration.
But Ms Vongratsavai says that while these are positive changes, they may not be enough.
"While these new codes are a positive step forward, and they really are a really great step forward, a more comprehensive strategy that combines regulation, education and technological advancements might offer a more robust approach to fostering a safer online environment. These codes coupled with broader efforts can collectively make a more significant impact in harmful content."
Even so, Ms Grant says that the work to ensure online safety is not done yet.
"There will always be work to be done to not only get the companies to the places where they need to be, to take that full responsibility to act, but we're also talking about humans in the frame. And there will always be people, humans that will try and find creative ways to misuse technology. It's kind of like saying, well if you do that if you pass this law, are you going to eradicate all crime? No, we won't eradicate all crime, but our goal is to make the online world a little bit safer, more positive and less toxic for Australians."
If you come across illegal content online such as child sexual abuse, report this to eSafety at esafety.gov.au/report.
