The report I am tabling today is the Committee's second report on the
issue of the regulation of computer on-line services. Since holding an
earlier inquiry in April 1995 the Committee has invited submissions in
relation to the adequacy of current measures to control access by children
to obscene, offensive or otherwise undesirable material through computer
on-line services.
The Committee received 37 informative submissions, which contained some
450 pages of evidence. Public hearings were held in Canberra in September
and Sydney in October where the opportunity was taken to clarify many
of the issues raised in the submissions.
What the Committee found was that material which would be refused classification
in any other medium, such as in publications, films and computer games,
can be found on-line. The Committee heard of there being depictions on-line
of child pornography and bestiality which are banned imports into Australia
under customs controls and are refused classification if presented to
the Office of Film and Literature Classification. Witnesses stressed to
the Committee that such material represents only a very small part of
the total volume of material available on-line. However, the Committee
takes the view that in the maintenance and protection of community standards
action should be taken to ensure that otherwise refused or restricted
material should not be available to children on-line.
Accordingly the Committee has recommended that it should be an offence
to use a computer service to transmit, obtain possession of, demonstrate,
advertise or request the transmission of material equivalent to the "Refused
Classification" category.
The Committee also gave consideration to the issue of children gaining
access on-line to material equivalent to the "R" and "X"
categories to which their access is restricted in other media. It is a
feature of many on-line services that, once connected, all information
is available to all customers in the same way that, once broadcast, all
television is accessible to all viewers. The Committee has given consideration
to the likely effectiveness of on-line controls on children's access to
restricted material based on its observations in the past of the fallibility
of similar controls in the provision of audiotex and pay TV services.
The Committee has concluded that the main control is prohibition at source
and it has recommended accordingly.
The Committee noted that while regulation of material sourced within
Australia can be subjected to Australian law, such on-line services as
the Internet are of such a global nature that their regulation in Australia
is necessarily limited by jurisdictional constraints. Unlike publications,
films and computer games, which can be deemed to be "prohibited imports"
at the Customs barrier, the contents of on-line services sourced from
overseas cannot be vetted in any practical sense. Australian providers
of access to such services were concerned, however, that they should not
be held liable for the content of the material they are transmitting when
they have no responsibility for its authorship.
The network operators and service providers in the 0055 audiotex industry
had put similar arguments to the Committee in 1991 and 1992. On that occasion
the Committee had acknowledged the legitimacy of their argument in principle,
but had seen as an important part of their role the imposition of appropriate
content standards on their "authors" through their contractual
arrangements. These provisions would then be subject to enforcement action.
The Committee has made similar recommendations in relation to on-line
services. It has called for the establishment of an industry-based body
to adjudicate on claims of breach of content standards and, through the
contractual arrangements between network operators, access providers,
service providers and clients, impose realistic sanctions. The Committee
has also called upon the Australian Government to pursue at appropriate
international forums the concept of classification at source of all material
placed on-line, based on an agreed set of classification standards.
The Committee believes that, in its recommendations, it has given the
industry a sound regulatory environment in which its most positive features
can flourish while appropriate attention is paid to the areas of greatest
concern.
The Committee also recognises that the march of technology is placing
in doubt traditional approaches to content regulation. With the likelihood
of continuing globalisation of information and entertainment services
in the future, through such technologies as satellite and broadband, the
consumer of the future may have to take much greater responsibility for
their choices. It is then the Government's responsibility to ensure that
the consumer is suitably empowered to make informed decisions. To this
end the Committee proposes to sponsor a conference of experts to examine
how a program of widespread public education and debate might be fostered.