Abhorrent violent material
On 6 April 2019 the Criminal Code Amendment (Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material) Act 2019 commenced.
Reporting abhorrent violent conduct
The Act requires content, internet and hosting providers to, within a reasonable time, report to the Australian Federal Police abhorrent violent conduct that is:
- happening in Australia and
- accessible through their services, or
- hosted on their services.
The penalty for failing to do so is a fine of up to $177,600 (800 penalty units) for individuals and $888,000 (4,000 penalty units) for corporations.
Removing abhorrent violent material
The Act also creates a new offence for content and hosting service providers around the world who fail to expeditiously remove abhorrent violent material.
The penalty for a corporation that fails to remove content expeditiously is up to 50,000 penalty units ($11.1 million) or 10% of the annual turnover of the company, whichever is greater.
The penalty for a person who fails to remove content expeditiously is up to 10,000 penalty units ($2.22 million) and 3 years’ imprisonment.
eSafety Commissioner powers
The Act also provides the eSafety Commissioner the power to notify service providers that abhorrent violent material is available on their services. These notices create a presumption that the provider is aware of the material and puts providers on notice that such material should be removed.
Get more information
Available for download are the following documents:
These resources provide guidance on:
- the offences contained in the Act and their operation
- the obligations of internet service providers, hosting services and content services under the Act.