The federal government has introduced draft digital duty of care legislation, designed to protect Australians from online harms.
The legislation was first planned — but shelved — in 2024. At the time, the government heralded it as “a shift away from reacting to harms by relying on content regulation alone, and moving towards systems-based prevention.”
After a two-year wait, this bill — if passed — could finally fulfill that goal.
Greater control over algorithms
A digital duty of care puts the onus on digital service providers — such as social media platforms, generative artificial intelligence (AI) services, messaging apps, websites, and interactive online games — to create a safe online environment.
“Just as we have basic safety standards for cars, toys or food, the duty of care applies basic standards for the online products we use every day,” Minister for Communications Anika Wells said.
Under the draft legislation, social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok must give users an option of whether they want their default feed to include personalized content recommended by an algorithm or only content from their friends and people they follow. This option will appear as a pop-up box for people when they use social media.
Wells acknowledged many people may choose to stick with the recommendation algorithm. But she said the value of this initiative is that it gives people a choice: “It’s empowering.”
Protecting people from illegal and harmful content
The draft bill also requires digital service providers to protect all users from seriously harmful material and conduct, including illegal content. This includes content relating to child sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse, grooming, promoting or inciting sexual violence, supporting terrorism, and encouraging criminal offenses, illicit drug use and abhorrent violent conduct.
In addition, digital service providers must also protect teenagers and children from addictive features and harmful content. This includes pornography and content that encourages disordered eating, hostile attitudes towards women and gender equality, dangerous stunts, and harassment or bullying.
Companies must also conduct regular risk assessments which identify “all reasonably foreseeable risks,” as well as the content and design features that give rise to those risks. They must make these assessments available to the eSafety Commissioner within 30 days, if requested.
The draft bill also empowers the commissioner to issue removal notices for “nudify” apps and websites, and streamline the child cyberbullying and adult cyber abuse schemes.
The legislation is similar to laws already in effect in the United Kingdom and the European Union. Since 2024, for example, the EU’s Digital Services Act has been used to investigate potentially addictive features of Meta’s platforms.
Just this past week, EU lawmakers have “demanded” that Meta be compelled to change the “addictive” design of its platforms in Europe.
How did we get here?
This approach was first recommended by a 2024 review of the Online Safety Act.
The government put the proposed digital duty of care legislation on hold while it pursued implementation of social media age restrictions. In December 2025, the legislation was revived, with an open consultation period.
The government then released an issues paper on the development of a duty of care framework in May 2026. That plan highlighted five key principles that informed the design of the current legislation:
- improving and promoting online safety for Australians
- providing clarity for regulated entities and minimizing regulatory complexity
- building on the current online safety protections for Australians
- improving accountability and transparency
- building in sufficient flexibility to accommodate technological change.
Will it work?
One key question is how the legislation will be enforced.
Companies that breach their digital duty of care would face fines of nearly A$110 million. The eSafety Commissioner would be able to investigate technology companies’ compliance.
Notably, the draft bill also gives “approved” researchers, such as those from an Australian university, access to digital service providers’ data for the purposes of online safety–related research. Approved researchers could also create a false online identity (known as a “sock puppet”) to test the safety of online services.
If enacted, one key question is whether this new legislation — if successful — could effectively replace Australia’s social media age restrictions by addressing harmful content and design features.
Those restrictions were intended to keep children safe from harm on social media platforms. But current research shows more than 85% of children were still using the platforms three months after the law came into effect.
The government’s own data echoes these findings. This raises concerns about the effectiveness of age-based restrictions to prevent harm.
A long road ahead
The government is now seeking feedback on the draft bill and expects to introduce it to parliament this year. But the passage of the bill isn’t guaranteed. The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, says it is an attempt to “censor” the Internet.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejects this claim, saying “it’s about giving people control over what they see.”
Regardless, the introduction of this legislation is an important and necessary step to ensure safety by design, and safe use, for Australian consumers.
Technologies evolve quickly, raising known and potential future harms for people of all ages. Technology companies must be required — by law — to have a duty of care for all users. This is the only way to ensure we can benefit from online services while being protected from the harms they can present.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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