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New Australian law to mandate safety-by-design
Australia is proposing new safety-by-design duties for digital services, putting the onus on companies to assess and mitigate risks to children.
Less than a year since passing the Social Media Minimum Age Act that spawned scores of copy-cat laws around the world, the Australian government has released new draft legislation putting the onus on digital service providers to provide a safe online environment, setting minimum standards for the features and tools they use.
The Digital Duty of Care Bill introduces legal obligations of safety-by-design for online services including online games, social media, search services as well as AI tools and chatbots. They will be required to undertake risk assessments and mitigation, and protect under 18s from design features that have negative behavioural impacts, like addictive features or those that can have an effect on a young person’s self-esteem. Features listed include recommender systems, endless-feeds, feedback and time-limited features.
Digital platforms will also be required to shield under 18s from harmful content such as that which promotes, encourages or accelerates eating disorders; glorifies crime or life endangering stunts; promotes hostile ideas about women and gender equality; or causes serious mental health distress, including abuse and bullying.
The proposal complements the Social Media Minimum Age Act. In force since last December, the ban for under 16s has had some positive impact, but left older teenagers exposed, while most younger children report maintaining their access to their accounts.
Announcing the new law, Communications Minister Anika Wells echoed 5Rights language, saying:
“Big Tech is not a protected species and they should offer their customers basic safety standards… This is about making sure they do safety by design, basic safety standards that every other industry has to apply to their own products if they want to sell those products to Australians.”
The Bill also tackles algorithmic recommendations for all users, requiring social media platforms to send a notification to new and existing users offering them a choice over their default feed. Users would need to opt-in to algorithm-driven personalised feeds, or opt-out to see only content by the friends and creators they choose to follow.
Leanda Barrington-Leach, 5Rights Executive Director said:
“It is great to see Australia embedding its pioneering work on safety-by-design into enforceable law. By making risk assessment and mitigation mandatory for all digital services and banning design features that are known to be high risk for children, Australia is signalling that self-regulation has had its chance and acknowledging that bans alone cannot keep kids safe.”
The draft law would amend the Online Safety Act and significantly bolster the powers of the eSafety Commissioner. The regulator would be mandated to issue remedial directions, compel the production of risk assessments and reports, and levy fines for non-compliance reaching A$109.2 million (US$78 million).
It comes as the Australian Privacy Commissioner also prepares to release its final Children’s Online Privacy Code, which significantly strengthens the country’s data protection regime for children, embedding age-appropriate design.
