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Govt proposes digital safety bill, 3% fines, under-16 ban

6/11/2026

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Summary

Story summary

The government introduced a safety bill that would create a Digital Safety Commission and impose fines of up to 3% of a platform’s global revenue.
The bill would ban accounts for users under 16 and set safety requirements for AI chatbots, defining harmful-content categories such as child sexual exploitation and intimate images.
Officials estimate the law could take a year to pass and 18 months to set up the regulator.

History

Historical Context

In February 1996 President Bill Clinton signed the Communications Decency Act, the first effort to apply broadcast indecency rules to the Internet, championed by Senators James Exon and Slade Gorton. The Supreme Court’s 1997 Reno v. ACLU ruling struck down the anti-indecency sections but preserved Section 230, a liability shield that shapes today’s Digital Safety Commission proposals.

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Story summary

The government introduced a safety bill that would create a Digital Safety Commission and impose fines of up to 3% of a platform’s global revenue.
The bill would ban accounts for users under 16 and set safety requirements for AI chatbots, defining harmful-content categories such as child sexual exploitation and intimate images.
Officials estimate the law could take a year to pass and 18 months to set up the regulator.

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