Details of how the eSafety Commissioner will oversee the Online Safety Bill are still being ironed out.
A new Online Safety Bill is awaiting its passage in Australia. It aims to protect Australians of all ages from online harm, but many have submitted concerns with the rushed nature of the Bill, the harm it can cause to the adult industry, and the overbearing powers it affords to the eSafety Commissioner, as some examples. eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant on Friday faced the Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications as part of its probe of the Online Safety Bill 2021, admitting the details of how the measures legislated in the Bill would be overseen are still being worked out. “This is the sausage being made right now, if you will,” she said. “It’s a novel scheme; we’re no strangers to setting up novel schemes,” she later added. Inman Grant said eSafety went through the “same conundrum” when developing the cyberbullying scheme, as well as defining what constitutes seriously harassing, threatening, intimidating, and humiliating.
