5 Necessary Elements for Digital Platform Regulation Updated

This is the second edition of Reset.Tech Australia’s policy paper, outlining the big picture changes necessary to transform Australia’s digital regulation into systemic focussed legislation. We offer this material to the Albanese Government to support their consideration of Big Tech regulation in the 48th Parliament.

In this update, with support of legal counsel, we further probed some of the likely challenges for a ‘comprehensive’ online safety package in Australia. This edition includes:

• Analysis on potential barriers to systems-driven online safety reforms
• Consideration of the Online Safety Act Review Report, which was publicly released after version 1 of this report
• Revised recommendations for policy design, including some reworking of the ‘duty of care’ model, proposing adaptations to address constitutional concerns and refine the drafting.

We released the first edition of this policy guide in late 2024, when Australia had gone through an eventful year with ‘Big Tech’. The stand-off with Meta over the News Media Bargaining Code had interlocked with a public campaign from legacy media that highlighted the social risks from large ‘social media’ platforms. Parents mobilised, and parliamentarians provided them with the solution of age restrictions for accessing social media. The implementation of this package continues across 2025.

At the time of the ‘ban/delay’ discussions, Reset.Tech Australia was part of a quiet but persistent group who observed that any government seeking long-term safety outcomes from online providers would need to simultaneously oversee a ‘product safety’ style regime to formalise and entrench a broader set of expectations. This included addressing the product design and software that creates adverse outcomes for users – giving rise to well-documented public health issues like device addiction and disrupted sleep, as well as more complex technical issues like vulnerabilities in paid-for advertising models that give rise to financial scams. This update report outlines how digital regulation could address these broader expectations.