Source: Tāhono Trust and Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand
This is a joint statement by Tāhono Trust and Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand on today’s announcement that the Government will introduce the Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Risk Assessment) Bill.
“For a long time, we along with many others across society, have been calling on the Government to provide greater safeguards for online safety based on tech company accountability, including a duty of care (including risk assessments), independent oversight, and penalties for non-compliance.
“We are pleased that it appears the Bill will introduce these requirements. The opportunity now is to extend these protections to everyone. Earlier this year Tāhono and Amnesty released an open letter that was signed by a major cross-sector coalition, from business to media, to community. The letter outlined the serious harm people across society are facing, from attacks to scams. We need action on online harm that addresses the broad range of harms and protects all people,” says Anjum Rahman from the Tāhono Trust.
“While expected, we continue to oppose a social media ban for under-16yr olds, included in the Bill. Our concern, shared by the Children’s Commissioner, is that an under-16 access ban, modelled on Australia’s law, addresses a symptom while leaving the underlying causes largely untouched.
“Requirements like risks assessments and independent oversight are the sort of changes that can make a real difference, but everyone should get the protection they afford. By extending these requirements to everyone, it could be the beginning of the transformation of online platforms into a positive force in our lives, which lives up to the potential we saw when the platforms first came into being,” says Lisa Woods from Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand.
Notes:
The Amnesty and Tāhono #NoHarmware campaign recommends:
- Transparency: Tech companies should clearly show how their algorithms work, like what content they recommend, what they remove, and how complaints are handled.
- Duty of care: Tech companies must actively try and make sure their products and services are safer by design. This means having strong checks to find risks and ways to reduce them.
- Independent oversight: There should be outside monitoring with the power to penalise companies that don’t follow the rules. Tech companies must also provide reports to show if they are following these rules.
- The Government’s obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi are upheld, with Māori genuinely involved in developing this regulation, and that people with lived experience of online harm are heard in shaping the final law.
To learn more about the #NoHarmware campaign and the impact online harm is having on human rights, visit: noharmware.nz