The NSW Department of Education’s Cyber Security arm and the NSW Department of Customer Services have partnered to launch a new Digital Citizenship website to better inform young people of their online activities.

The launch comes at the same time the eSafety Commissioner has thrust several tech giants in the spotlight over their handling of online child sexual abuse and other harmful material appearing on their platforms.

Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Discord, Snap, Skype and WhatsApp have each been served with legal notices requiring them to report back to the regulator every six months about the measures implemented to tackle child abuse material, livestreamed abuse, online grooming, sexual extortion and – where applicable – the production of “synthetic” or deep faked child abuse material created using generative AI. The notices require the companies to submit reports for the next two years.

“We’re stepping up the pressure on these companies to lift their game,” eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said.

“When we sent notices to these companies back in 2022/3, some of their answers were alarming but not surprising as we had suspected for a long time that there were significant gaps and differences across services’ practices. In our subsequent conversations with these companies, we still haven’t seen meaningful changes or improvements to these identified safety shortcomings.

“The report also unearthed wide disparities in how quickly companies respond to user reports of child sexual exploitation and abuse on their services. Back in 2022, Microsoft said on average it took two days to respond, or as long as 19 days when these reports required re-review, which was the longest of all the providers. Snap on the other hand reported responding within 4 minutes.

“Speed isn’t everything, but every minute counts when a child is at risk. These notices will let us know if these companies have made any improvements in online safety since 2022/3 and make sure these companies remain accountable for harm still being perpetrated against children on their services.

“We know that some of these companies have been making improvements in some areas – this is the opportunity to show us progress across the board.”

The new Digital Citizenship website from the NSW Government provides information, advice and tools for students, teachers, parents and carers to navigate conversations and discussions with young people about their digital footprint, how to protect their privacy, how to behave respectfully and responsibly online and how to make informed decisions about their online activity.

“Young people can make mistakes, and we know what happens on the internet can stay there forever and be amplified for all to see,” the Department’s Chief Information Officer, Charlie Sukkar, said.

“Fifteen per cent of young people have received threats or abuse online, and 60 per cent of parents say that their child is exposed to risks from being online.

“Educating our young people on how to navigate the dangers of online spaces is a vital life skill, especially as more and more of our lives are being spent online.”

The website launch comes after an Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) report released earlier this year found 90 per cent of children spend at least one hour a week with their screens, with the number of children spending more than 20 hours a week online rising from 16 per cent in 2017-18 to 24 per cent in 2021-22.

The resource will support teachers, parents and carers to start conversations with young people on the basics of digital citizenship, including being creative and collaborative, gaming safely, using social media wisely, sharing mindfully, and managing time online.

Inman Grant also fronted the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills regarding the introduction of the Criminal Code Amendment (Deepfake Sexual Material) Bill 2024 in July.

“There is compelling and concerning data that explicit deepfakes have increased on the Internet as much as 550 per cent year on year since 2019. It’s a bit shocking to note that pornographic videos make up 98 per cent of the deepfake material currently online and 99 per cent of that imagery is of women and girls,” she said.

“Criminalisation of these actions is entirely appropriate, serving an important deterrent function while expressing our collective moral repugnance to this kind of conduct. The Bill adds powerfully to the existing interlocking civil powers and proactive safety by design interventions championed by eSafety. Through these, we should feel justified putting the burden on AI companies themselves to engineer out potential misuse.

“The harms caused by image-based abuse have been consistently reported. They include negative impacts on mental health and career prospects, as well as social withdrawal and interpersonal difficulties. Victim-survivors have also described how their experiences of image-based abuse radically disrupted their lives, altering their sense of self, identity and their relationships with their bodies and with others.

“The risks are simply too high if we let these powerful apps proliferate into the wild without adequate safeguards from the get-go. And, if the primary purpose for the creation of the application is to inflict harm and perpetuate abuse, then we should take a closer look at why such apps are allowed to be created in the first place. It is only through this multi-faceted approach that we can tackle these rapidly proliferating AI-generated harms. We support this important Bill and will also pursue effective prevention, protection and proactive efforts to tackle these challenges from multiple vantage points.”

The tech companies have until 15 February next year to respond to the notice issued by the eSafety Commissioner, and could face financial penalties of up to $782,500 a day if they do not respond.