Ms Julie Inman Grant:

Dia daoibh and hello from Sydney. It is a pleasure to talk to the committee today and I congratulate members for delving so deeply into these laws and considering how to best protect their citizens online.

When I was preparing for this hearing, I reviewed some of the debates the committee has had for this Bill. I noticed that the committee has heard from industry and civil society, and understandably their views have differed on the recommended approach and timelines for online regulation. One thing is for certain; we may never achieve full scale consensus because these issues are challenging. Balancing a free and open Internet with the protection of individuals and societies, where national laws have bounds but where harms know no borders, is a hard regulatory and policy posture to introduce, and more importantly, to deliver. It requires commitment, education, perseverance and a fair degree of cultural change. As members know, the issue of online harms and keeping people safe online is more important than ever as we rely on the digital environment to learn, work and even socialise.

Here in Australia during the pandemic, where we are still in lockdown, we have seen a surge in reports across all of our regulatory schemes. In the fourth quarter of the last financial year compared with the same time in the previous year, reports about illegal content, primarily child sexual abuse material and some pro-terrorist content, increased by 96%. Reports of image-based abuse or the non-consensual sharing of intimate images and videos increased by 255%. Adult cyber abuse, for which we do not have a scheme, increased by about 53%. The most moderate increase was in child cyberbullying, at 19%, which did not surprise us because most youth-based cyberbullying tends to be peer-to-peer and an extension of conflict happening within the schoolyard. When kids were separated, there was less cyberbullying as an extension of that conflict.

As the world’s first government agency solely dedicated to tackling online abuse, we provide an important safety net for Australians when reports to social media sites, which may miss culture or context, tend to fall through the cracks. Last month, a more robust and modernised Online Safety Act passed both Houses of the Australian Parliament, providing me and my office with more expansive powers to help protect all Australians from the most serious forms of online harm, and we are happy to talk the committee through some of those provisions. The Act will take effect in early 2022 and it will enhance our ability to provide greater services and support for citizens, in line with our core functions.

We have an important leadership and co-operative role to play in the international arena, as other governments, such as the Irish Government, look to establish online content regulators. We have landed on an effective model in Australia that is working by focusing on three major sets of interventions. These are as follows: prevention; protection; and proactive and systemic change. We invest in our own research, education and awareness campaigns to prevent online harms from happening in the first place and through our regulatory and complaints schemes, we protect our citizens by taking down seriously harmful content as well as employing a range of powers and remedial actions to hold both perpetrators and platforms to account. We also seek to minimise the threat surface for the future by staying ahead of emerging tech trends and by shifting responsibility back onto the platforms themselves through initiatives like #SafetybyDesign. We accept that each country will approach online safety in line with its own perceived needs and regulatory structures but we hope to achieve a significant synergy in a collective approach. In the near future, just as we have network of data protection authorities, we will likely also see a global network of online safety regulators.

As the committee moves through future debates on its Bill, it is always helpful to remember the citizens for whom the committee is carrying out this reform. It will be providing them with vital protections that they do not currently enjoy. It could be a person that members know: a child; a person at risk or disadvantage; an older person in their lives; or a colleague. Online harms can affect anyone at any time. While digital harms may not leave visible scars, we know the damage can be significant and enduring. We are pleased that the committee understands this and that it is working towards the best possible solution for Ireland. I look forward to members' questions.