Response to the Basic Online Safety Expectations consultation

Reset.Tech Australia submitted to the Government’s consultation regarding the Basic Online Safety Expectations in the Online Safety Act. Our submission provides general feedback on Australia’s online safety framework and highlights:

1. Suggested enhancements and improvements regarding systems and processes,       including:

• Suggestions to improve safety from proposed expectations regarding AI, recommender systems and user-controls, enforcement of terms of service and complaints and reporting systems.
• Suggestions to improve safety by including expectations around additional systems and elements, including content moderation systems, ad approval systems, ad management systems and a broader catch all for all ‘systems and elements’.

2. Suggestions to increasing accountability and transparency, including:

• Suggestions to enhance transparency, including additional oversight and scrutiny of public periodic transparency reports and ensuring researcher access to public interest data.
• Suggestions to increase accountability, which may require changes to the Online Safety Act and. For example, introducing an overarching duty of care, challenging assumptions that listed reasonable steps are voluntary and increasing civil penalties. These could be considered in the terms of reference for the upcoming review.

3. Suggestions to enhance Children’s Best Interests, including suggestions to enhance transparency and accountability for decisions that affect children.

4. Considerations regarding hate speech, where we note the need for a more systemic approach to effectively protect communities

Please note: This submission was uploaded before the Terms of Review (TOR) for the Online Safety Act were released. We are pleased that a number of our recommendations have appeared in the TOR.