INTERNET CONTENT POLICY AND REGULATION IN AUSTRALIA

Abstract

It can generally be observed that the propensity for creating new internet content regulation within a country results from the interaction of three forces. Firstly, there are the cultural values and institutions within a country. ‘Institutions’ include the traditional media who have historically acted as drivers of the debate about the harms of being online. Sometimes they are more sensationalist than is justified. In any event, these values and institutions shape the political debate and determine the enthusiasm with which legislatures bring forth new laws, in response, as it were, to public concern. In Australia, the traditional media have been very active in pointing out the ‘dangers’ of the internet. To a large degree they have played on the fears of a public which is still coming to terms with the internet revolution. Although the number of Australians online has progressively grown over the last 10 years, from a minority of mainly young, affluent early adopters, to today where the internet is effectively a mainstream medium with almost three quarters of the population online,1 still the depth of user experience remains thin enough that we see the occasional headline proclaiming the menace of some new internet threat or other. This is enough to fuel minority groups with their own agendas, to proclaim the internet a risk to traditional values/our children’s safety/national security/the future of their business model or whatever cause suits them. This may play all the way through to the political level where we eventually see new laws proposed. This dynamic is certainly not unique to Australia, but we have nevertheless seen the mechanism operate here with sometimes startling results.