Content Regulation

Content regulation of new media sources will be an ongoing and increasingly important issue for the Parliament.

The Australian system of media content regulation is co-regulatory. Content on television, radio and the Internet is regulated jointly through legislation and industry codes and standards.

For some time, however, there has been concern about the ability of existing regulation to keep pace with issues that arise in relation to audiovisual content delivered over convergent devices such as mobile phones.

A 2004 review recommended that the media content regime be updated regularly so that it continues to reflect community standards and the principles inherent in a national classification code. These principles include that adults should be able to read, hear and see what they want. At the same time, people should be protected from exposure to unsolicited material that they find offensive, and children should be protected from harmful or disturbing material.

Recurring governmental review will be of increasing importance in relation to new and emerging technologies. Complex regulatory and moral considerations will surface as technology that delivers information and entertainment increases in sophistication. Parliament may need to reassess co-regulatory options in relation to degrees of industry freedom, and the involvement of government bodies, such as the Australian Communications and Media Authority, in imposing restrictions.

A concomitant issue will concern processes used to filter content. Filtering techniques can impose controls on access to information on the Internet by:

• denying access at a server level to certain Internet addresses or services, such as pornographic web sites, or
• controlling access to information at personal computer level.

Given the rapid pace of changes in technology, the 42^nd Parliament will need to monitor these filtering techniques regularly to ensure that they remain effective and reflect community standards, while not inhibiting industry growth.

Documentation
Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Review of the regulation of content delivered over convergent devices, DCITA, Canberra, 2006.