Australia Considers Online Safety Bill 2021 | Avast

Australia Considers Online Safety Bill 2021 | Avast
Avast Security News Team, 26 February 2021

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Parliament in Australia is reviewing the proposed Online Safety Bill 2021, which would in essence extend the cyberbullying rules protecting children so that adults are protected in the same way. The bill also expands children’s protection by giving them the right to be free from harmful content not only in the realms of social media, but also within games, on websites, and using other online services.
The eSafety Commissioner would gain the right to issue content takedown notices directly to the offending services and end users, with the mandated takedown time halved from 48 to 24 hours. Noncompliant entities would face penalties of up to AU$550,000 for companies and AU$111,000 for individuals. 
“Sadly, social media has become a breeding ground for cyberbullies who abuse the anonymity provided by the platforms,” commented Avast Security Evangelist Luis Corrons. “When this gets to a certain level, such as involving death threats, justice can intervene. In other cases, however, that hasn’t been an option. Hopefully this new bill adds new tools that protect people from being harassed online.” The punishments for cyberbullying do get more serious when the harassment becomes criminal behavior, such as in sextortion scams where bad actors try to intimidate victims into paying money to stop the release of embarrassing content. A second piece of legislation called the australia considers online safety avast