The Office of the eSafety Commissioner recently issued notices requesting the development of Phase 2 codes to five industry bodies and associations who represent the sections of the online industry to which the codes will apply. To accompany these notices, eSafety has published this position paper setting out principles and suggestions for industry in developing the codes, which are intended to protect children from graphic content online.

The paper aims to:

• outline lessons learned from the Phase 1 industry codes and standards development process
• discuss the current domestic and international regulatory context of child safety protections for class 1C and class 2 content
• detail eSafety’s suggested risk-based, graduated approach to dealing with different types of class 1C and class 2 content
• set out principles for measures to be adopted by industry in the Phase 2 codes
• set out specific suggested measures for industry’s consideration.

The industry bodies and associations will have until 3 October 2024 to return draft codes to eSafety as an indicative target for achieving progress, and until 19 December 2024 to return the final drafts of Phase 2 industry codes.