The Business Council of Australia’s submission on the exposure draft of the Online Safety Amendment (Digital Duty of Care) Bill 2026 supports the introduction of a digital duty of care and recommends changes to ensure the framework is clear, proportionate and focused on services and providers that can control online safety risks.
The proposed duty is intended to reduce online harm, particularly harm to children. However, as drafted, it could apply beyond large digital platforms to a wide range of ordinary business services, including online banking and workplace software. Important questions about the scope of the duty, the compliance standard and regulatory safeguards also remain unresolved.
To support safer online services while avoiding regulatory duplication and unnecessary costs for services that present little risk of the harms targeted by the Bill, the submission calls for government to:
- set clear statutory boundaries and allocate responsibility according to control of the risk, with appropriate treatment for low-risk and extensively regulated services
- clarify the compliance standard and make risk assessments proportionate, while recognising equivalent work completed under comparable international frameworks
- define harms with regard to context and target design and user-empowerment requirements at demonstrated risks, while protecting access to lawful services and information
- set the core obligations in legislation and publish a clear implementation timetable, supported by consultation on significant rules and guidance
- establish proportionate enforcement and regulatory safeguards, including differentiated penalties, protection of confidential information, appropriate research-access requirements and recognition of existing complaints and regulatory processes.