eSafety rejects two sectors' commitments to reduce illegal and harmful content

Australia's digital content cop won’t register the enforceable minimum standards for detecting and removing illegal and harmful content proposed by two sectors, and has reserved judgement on a third.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant

Five of eight submitted codes - for Social Media Services, Internet Carriage Services, App Distribution Services, Hosting Services, and Equipment - were deemed adequate and will be registered.

But the commissioner has rejected codes written for Designated Internet Services (DIS) and Relevant Electronic Services (RES).

The RES code - dating sites, online games and instant messaging - and DIS code - apps, websites, and file and photo storage services - made inadequate commitments to reduce content like child abuse and pro-terror material, the eSafety Commissioner said. 

“The Designated Internet Services code still doesn’t require file and photo storage services like iCloud, Google Drive, or OneDrive to detect and flag known child sexual abuse material,” Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a statement.

“We know that online storage services like these are used to store and share child sexual abuse material and pro-terror material between offenders,” she added. 

“The Relevant Electronic Services code also doesn’t require email services and some partially encrypted messaging services to detect and flag this material either, even though we know there are proactive steps they can take to stem the already rampant sharing of illegal content.”

The Commissioner published a report earlier in the year outlining how these services could expand their use of technologies like AI classifiers and hash matching to detect both previously identified and new, unconfirmed instances of child abuse material.

Inman Grant said she would now develop mandatory and enforceable industry standards for RES and DIS sectors.

In addition, Inman Grant reserved her decision on the proposed Search Engines code and requested a revision be submitted within four weeks to address specific risks concerning advancements in generative AI and its integration into search engine functions.

“The current Search Engines code is not fit for purpose given the increased functionality of search engines and the integration of powerful generative AI tools, which will revolutionise the way that search is conducted," Inman Grant said.

Six months after the codes are registered, eSafety will be able to respond to breaches by Australian and overseas companies with injunctions, enforceable undertakings and penalties of $687,500 per day per offence. 

The industry codes will become enforceable six months from the date of registration. 

Based on the several thousand content takedowns that eSafety issued platforms after the Online Safety Act came into effect last year, she is likely to make full use of the enforcement powers as soon as they are available.

“eSafety and indeed the wider community expect that these companies should take reasonable steps to prevent their services from being used to store and distribute this horrendous content,” Inman Grant said in the release today. 

“And the need for action is increasing. In the first three months of this year, we have seen a 285 percent increase in reports into our office of ... abuse material compared to the same time last year.” 

The publicly available codes refer to Class 1A and 1B content, which would be refused classification by the National Classification Scheme, like child abuse and terror material.

Class 2 codes for adult or age-restricted content will be drafted once the codes for more harmful content are complete.

Due to the broad range of industries covered by the eight codes, the proposals were written by a number of associations, including the Business Software Alliance, the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association, the Communications Alliance, the Consumer Electronics Suppliers Association, the Digital Industry Group, and the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association.