The Business Council of Australia has made a submission to the Senate inquiry into the Online Safety Amendment (Digital Duty of Care) Bill 2026.
The BCA supports a clearly defined digital duty of care that improves online safety, particularly for children, while protecting privacy and lawful expression.
The proposed duty would apply across a broad range of online services across the economy, from higher-risk interactive platforms through to online retail, transactional and enterprise services. The BCA’s submission argues that obligations should reflect the actual risk presented by a service, align more closely with established international approaches, and provide businesses with greater certainty about how the Australian framework fits with comparable regimes overseas.
The BCA recommends that the Bill:
- align more closely with established international approaches, including the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act
- provide clear and proportionate compliance and enforcement requirements
- ensure service-design and age-assurance requirements respond to demonstrated risks
- strengthen safeguards for privacy, confidential information and service security
- provide clear exclusions for low-risk and certain enterprise and regulated financial services
- provide a realistic implementation timetable, including 24 months before the core duty takes effect.
Getting these settings right would strengthen online safety by focusing obligations and regulatory effort on the services and risks that matter most. It would also give businesses greater certainty to invest in effective safeguards and better service design, while protecting privacy, lawful expression and access to legitimate services.