Herald Sun: $17k fine to deter foul trolls

Social media giants such as Facebook and Instagram will face fines of up to $17,000 a day if they repeatedly refuse to take down offensive and harassing material directed at Aussie children.

The anti-trolling legislation will be introduced today by the Federal Government, which will create an authority to fight cyber-bullying.

The office of the Children's E-Safety Commissioner will be empowered to demand social media organisations silence cyber bullies by taking down offensive content directed at children.

Under new laws, internet users including children who post offensive material can also be directed to take down the remarks and apologise to the child, or face a Federal Court injunction.

The parliamentary secretary for communications, Paul Fletcher, said $17,000 fines would be issued to large social media companies that repeatedly failed to take down harmful cyber bullying material "for each day that the services does not act in response to the commissioner".

"The way it's been set up is to make sure that the large social media service has a strong incentive to comply, because they know if they don't, they are exposed to this risk," Mr Fletcher said.

The legislation will place social media companies like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on a two-tiered monitoring scheme, where they are first able to submit themselves to comply voluntarily with the take-down commands issued by the commissioner.