The Australian Government has now responded to the independent statutory review of the Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) (the Act) by Delia Rickard PSM, and International Justice Mission (IJM), the largest international anti-slavery organisation, welcomes this significant step forward.
The Government has reinforced its commitment to legislating a Digital Duty of Care for the online industry that will be underpinned by due diligence, safety by design principles, risk assessment and mitigation, robust enforcement, and measurement.
Executive Director of IJM's Center to End Online Sexual Exploitation of Children John Tanagho said, "IJM welcomes the Australian Government's intent for the Digital Duty of Care to cover 'all digital service providers,' including device manufacturers and operating system services. To ensure these sections of the online industry are within scope represents an opportunity to swiftly scale protections for children from online sexual exploitation and abuse, including by mainstreaming device-side prevention of the creation, live transmission and viewing of child sexual abuse images and videos."
IJM commends the Government for supporting the recommendation that online service providers prioritise the best interests of the child, which includes mitigating the risks to children from the design and operation of their services—crucially, even if those children are not the users themselves.
"It goes without saying that the best interest of a child is served by companies preventing their sexual abuse from being transmitted and viewed live online; the government must therefore ensure that companies operating in Australia implement effective safeguards into their live video platforms and smart devices to prevent the real and present danger to children that arises when Australians use their services to livestream and view child abuse," Mr. Tanagho said.
Survivor leader Barbie said, "From my own perspective as a survivor leader here in the Philippine Survivor Network, prevention is everything, because once the harm happens it doesn't just disappear, it stays with the child … the trauma, the harm, or even the experience of abuse. So, if we can stop it before it happens, we're not just protecting their future, but also protecting their present."
The Philippine Survivor Network is a survivor-led advocacy network in the Philippines made up of people with lived experience of sexual abuse and exploitation, particularly children.
IJM further commends the Government for supporting a stronger enforcement regime for the online safety regulator – increasing the maximum civil penalty that a court can impose to 5 percent of a company's global revenue or $50 million, whichever is greater, and increasing civil penalties to a maximum of $10 million for companies who fail to remove child sexual abuse images and videos online after notification.
"Ensuring the eSafety Commissioner has the enforcement tools necessary will be essential in guaranteeing tech industry compliance with online child safety requirements under the Online Safety Act and associated industry codes and standards," David Braga, CEO of IJM Australia said.
Acknowledging the Government supports, in principle, the report's recommendations recognising the role of safety tech solutions in detecting, disrupting and preventing child sexual exploitation and abuse material, IJM calls on the Government to continue investigating existing technological solutions.
As IJM has recently held productive conversations with Australian Government representatives, we would encourage the Government to further investigate existing AI-driven tools that work within the operating system of smart devices, which can automatically detect and block child sexual abuse images and videos, including in livestreamed video.
International safety tech companies have already proven that it is possible to both protect children from online sexual abuse, including alongside encrypted environments, and protect user privacy. Now it's time for such child safeguards to become a mandatory inclusion for smart devices to protect children from online sexual exploitation by offenders in Australia.
"It's good news that this harm is preventable. We can do something about it … I want people to understand also that we already have tools, and we need to use them," survivor leader Barbie shared.
IJM stands ready together with survivor leaders and safety tech experts to assist the Minister for Communications, the Honourable Anika Wells MP, to ensure that the forthcoming Online Safety Act reforms, including the Digital Duty of Care, requires tech companies to actively prevent their products or services from being used to sexually exploit children online.
"I think a lot of people believe in Australia that this issue is not real - it's not serious because it's happening online. But for a child, it's real - most especially if the children have the experience of being sexually abused online. I want to tell the Australian people that this issue matters," survivor leader Barbie said.
