ARTICLE · 17 FEBRUARY 2021

How will the Online Safety Act changes affect my business?

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Proposed changes & how these will affect businesses which operate an online service eg. social media platform.

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Jacqueline Gibson

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The Australian government is in the process of updating Australia's online safety laws. The current law protecting Australians on the internet is the Online Safety Act. This Act includes some critical protections for Australians using the internet. For example, it includes restrictions against inappropriate content, such as intimate image-based abuse and cyberbullying protection for children.

The proposed updates to the Online Safety Act look to expand the powers of the eSafety Commissioner, who is in charge of promoting and administering online safety. In what is being highlighted as a world first, the updates are expected to extend the existing cyber abuse scheme to Australian adults and enhance the existing protections for young people.

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