The Australian: Social media sites face large fines in crackdown on cyberbullies

Facebook and Twitter could be fined up to $17,000 per day if they fail to quickly take down cyber-bullying content, under new powers given to the government’s first Children’s e-Safety Commissioner.

Former Australian Federal Police agent and leading online safety expert Alastair MacGibbon has been appointed to the role and will be responsible for “changing online behaviour” and cracking down on cyber-bullying.

He will establish a complaints system for children, their parents and teachers and will ultimately be able issue a notice to “large” social media companies, including Facebook, requiring them to take cyber-bullying material down.

Paul Fletcher, Parliamentary Secretary to the Communications Minister, said if the notice was ignored the Commissioner would have the power to impose a fine of up to $17,000 per day until the material was removed.

“This is a big stick which is ultimately there but it’s very important to emphasise we do expect that we’ll be working very cooperatively with the large social media services and together we can make the internet safer for Australian children,” Mr Fletcher said.

Legislation to establish the Commissioner’s office was passed through Parliament earlier this month with bipartisan support, and will be running from July 1.

The legislation will be reviewed in three years, with the volume of complaints and the number of those successfully resolved scrutinised.

“Any Australian parent, teacher, headmaster and child welfare officer will tell you that this issue is indeed worsening for Australian children,” Mr MacGibbon said in Canberra.

“Changing online behaviour has to be one of the key objectives, that’s no small task. The important thing there is to make sure we have the appropriate information captured to look for that change.”

In the 2014-14 Budget the government announced $10 million would be spent on enhancing online safety for children, including $7.5 million to assist schools to access online safety programs and $2.4 million to establish and operate the Children’s e-Safety Commissioner’s office.

This article published online for The Australian: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/social-media-sites-face-large-fines-in-crackdown-on-cyberbullies/story-e6frgakx-1227269388522