Professor Brian O'Neill:

The terms of use, the community guidelines and all of the various ways companies set forth the rules under which users engage their services are fundamental requirements. I agree with the Chairman that sometimes there are difficulties in perceiving just how effective they are. Our statistic referred to the low take-up by young people, particularly when it comes to bullying and abuse. It was one of the least used options, either because it was felt not to be effective or because it did not deal with the immediate problem. There are codes of conduct. We have spoken about the various codes that apply in this area, but all of the major companies providing social media services, with few exceptions, have signed up to the safer social networking principles brokered by the European Union which have been through two successive rounds of evaluation. Added emphasis in evaluating their effectiveness and how well they are implemented is a very important step in that regard.

On the point concerning how this is overseen and by whom, the office of the digital safety commissioner would be an obvious point where it could be co-ordinated or organised. That is the basis on which it is operated in Australia. The Australian eSafety Commissioner has developed a code of conduct to which companies subscribe and which is subject to a transparency audit. These are some of the mechanisms and ways in which we seek to make progress.