SYDNEY, July 2 — Australia is giving the internet industry six months to come up with an enforceable code detailing how it will stop children from seeing pornography and other inappropriate material online, or face having a code imposed on it, a regulator said today.
The eSafety Commissioner said it wrote to members of the online industry demanding a plan by October 3 that sets out how they plan to protect minors from seeing high-impact material before they are ready, including themes of suicide and eating disorders.
The code should set standards for how app stores, websites including pornography and dating websites, search engines, social media platforms, chat services and even multi-player gaming platforms check that content is suitable for users, the commissioner said.
The demand begins a second phase of industry codes overseen by the regulator, which previously endorsed codes covering how internet companies stop the spread of terrorism or child sexual exploitation content.
Measures covered by the code protecting children from pornography could include age verification, default parental controls and software that blurs or filters unwanted sexual content, the regulator said.
“Kids’ exposure to violent and extreme pornography is a major concern for many parents and carers, and they have a key role to play,” said commissioner Julie Inman Grant in a statement.
“But it can’t all be on them. We also need industry to play their part by putting in some effective barriers,” she said.
A spokesman for Google, a unit of Alphabet, said the company would work closely with the industry on the new code, while a spokesman for Facebook and Instagram owner Meta said the company continues to engage constructively with the eSafety Commissioner.
Representatives of X and app store provider Apple were not immediately available for comment.
— Reuters
