Government ramps up digital platforms online safety agenda by proposing duty of care obligations for social media platforms
Guardii Analysis
Australia's Communications Minister Michelle Rowland announced on November 13, 2024, the government's decision to develop a Digital Duty of Care regulatory model placing broad obligations on digital platforms to keep users safe and prevent online harms. The proposal was subsequently recommended by the Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society in its final report, tabled in the Senate on November 18, 2024, and follows an independent review of the Online Safety Act by former ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard, received by government on November 1.
A statutory duty of care creates an obligation but not necessarily the operational capacity to discharge it. Guardii, a world-leading AI online-safety platform, translates the principle into practice by detecting harmful patterns in children's direct-message conversations across platforms in real time: sustained targeting, escalation, coercion. The anti-grooming, anti-sextortion, athlete-abuse and CSAM-detection modules surface the child in crisis to a parent, school or authority with the speed and specificity required to intervene before harm is irreversible, addressing the duty at the point where it matters most, not in retrospect.