The first phase of the Government’s proposed implementation of long-anticipated reforms to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”) was tabled in Parliament on 12 September 2024. The Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 (“Bill”) comes two years after the Attorney-General Department’s report (“Review”) proposed 116 recommendations to reform the Privacy Act. The Government’s response to the Review, in September 2023 (“Response”), “agreed” 38 proposals to be implemented first and this Bill addresses 23 of those proposals.

The Australian Government has introduced a raft of new digital legislation, including to combat misinformation and disinformation, and hate speech. It has also announced plans for minimum age requirements for social media.

On 29 April 2024, the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts opened public consultation as part of the ongoing independent statutory review (“Review”) of the Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) (“Act”) with the release of an Issues Paper (“Issues Paper”). Public consultation will close on 21 June 2024, with the final report of the Review expected to be provided to Government by 31 October 2024.

On 4 April 2024, the Minister for Communications opened consultation on significant and comprehensive stage two reforms to the National Classification Scheme (“Scheme”). The Scheme is comprised of a number of laws and regulatory instruments – together, operating as a regulatory framework for classifying films, certain publications and computer games under cooperative arrangements between the Commonwealth, and the States and Territories. In addition, the Scheme directly underpins the online content scheme in Part 9 of the Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) (“OSA” ) and informs elements of the broadcast television self-classification requirements in place under industry codes of practice under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (Cth).

On 13 February 2024, the Minister for Communications announced the Terms of Reference for the upcoming independent review into the operation of the Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) (OSA). For more information about other recent developments in the Australian online safety roll-out.
The Review is required by section 239A of the OSA, and will examine the effectiveness of the OSA, and consider whether additional protections are needed to prevent the publication and spread of harmful online material.

On 20 November 2023, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner (“eSafety”) released drafts of two new industry standards under the Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) (OSA) for public consultation.
The Standards cover providers of:
• Relevant electronic services, which cover a wide category of services that allow end-users to communicate online (including email, SMS, MMS, chat, instant messaging, various online games and dating services).
• Designated internet services, which cover a broad range of websites and apps not otherwise captured by the RES Standard or the industry codes that have been registered by eSafety under the OSA.

Regulatory developments in relation to online content continue at pace. Australia’s classification regime for films and computer games is set to be revamped. Meanwhile, new regulatory powers to combat misinformation and disinformation are proposed.

The eSafety Commissioner has issued a decision on proposed industry codes of practice under Australian online safety laws, which has significant implications for all companies operating online services in Australia.

On 25 July 2022, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner published Regulatory Guidance on the “Basic Online Safety Expectations”, which are provided for by Part 4 of the Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) and the Online Safety (Basic Online Safety Expectations) Determination 2022. This comes a day after eSafety became entitled to issue notices seeking information from a wide range of online service providers regarding their compliance with the expectations.

The Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) (“Act”) passed Parliament on 23 July 2021 and commences on 24 January 2022 (being six months after it received royal assent, unless proclaimed earlier). A key element of the Act is the proposed “basic online safety expectations” (“Expectations”), which specify the core expectations (to be determined by the Minister) for:
• social media services;
• relevant electronic services (services that allow communication with other end-users e.g., email, IM, chat and certain gaming services); and
• designated internet services (including, with a few exceptions, those that deliver or allow access to material via an internet carriage service).