The eSafety Commissioner has released a report showing that less than a quarter of Australians believe tech giants like Facebook, Instagram and Google are doing enough to protect users from harm on their platforms.
The report, which included a survey of more than 3,700 adults aged 18 to 65, revealed Australians wanted social media, gaming and app developers to remove harmful content, strengthen age restrictions, prioritise user privacy, and automatically flag inappropriate language and behaviour.
The Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant said that until the tech giants took these problems seriously more and more users would end up as casualties.
“eSafety’s small but dedicated team of investigators does a brilliant job of removing harmful content like child cyber-bullying, image-based abuse and child sexual abuse material from the internet, but it can be a bit like playing a virtual game of whack-a-mole due to the size of some of these platforms,” Ms Inman Grant said.
“It’s obvious from this report that the Australian public want action, and they increasingly want action from the platforms themselves, who are well-placed with the resources, technological ability and intellectual capital to make it a reality.”
Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, Paul Fletcher said the new research showed a significant awareness in the community of the potential to experience harm online.
“The top three online risks identified by Australians in the report were scams/fraud, bullying/trolling, and the misuse of personal information/images,” Mr Fletcher said.
“Almost half of those surveyed also highlighted the proliferation of unreliable information or fake news as a major risk online.”
The Commissioner’s 25-page report Building Australian adults’ confidence and resilience online can be accessed at this PS News link.
