Australia passes amendment strengthening Online Safety Act penalties for platforms

The Australian Parliament has passed amendments to the Online Safety Act that increase maximum penalties for platforms failing to remove child sexual abuse material to AUD 50 million or 10 percent of global revenue. The amendments also require platforms to report to the eSafety Commissioner on proactive detection measures and create a statutory duty to prevent foreseeable harm to children using their services.

Statutory duties to prevent harm shift the compliance question from reactive removal to upstream interception. Detection technology that intercepts grooming, sextortion and CSAM solicitation at the conversation level addresses the duty at its source, before material reaches a child or a predator establishes control. Guardii operates across the platforms where children are most active, identifying the sustained targeting, escalation and coercion patterns that characterize exploitation, flagging serious threats in real time and enabling platforms to fulfill both the letter and the intent of their statutory obligations.