Cyber-safety plan

The Australian Government announced a comprehensive plan for cyber-safety as part of the 2008-2009 Federal Budget. Funding of $125.8 million over four years has been committed to the cyber-safety plan.

The plan will tackle the issue of cyber-safety from a number of directions to help protect Australian children from the dangers of the internet, now and into the future.

Initiatives under the plan for cyber-safety include:

• a Consultative Working Group to provide advice and information to Government on measures to protect Australian children from threats and illegal content they could encounter online
• a Youth Advisory Group to inform Government on issues of cyber-safety, including how best to address them, and how to communicate the messages to other young Australians—the Youth Advisory Group will report to the Consultative Working Group
• researching the changing digital landscape to identify the scale of cyber-safety issues and target future policy
• working with all levels of government to educate Australians on cyber-safety risks and mitigation strategies
• pursuing an international agenda for collaborative action to share knowledge, concerns and solutions, with an expanded blacklist of illegal and prohibited content as a key outcome
• working with Australian Internet Service Providers (ISP) to make a filtered internet service available to all homes, schools and public internet points accessible by children—a laboratory trial of ISP filtering, followed by a real world live pilot, will inform implementation
• working with children, educators and information technology (IT) specialists to improve the current website for parents and teachers
• developing a children's cyber-safety website that teaches children how to be responsible cyber-citizens and
• developing a specific online helpline to assist children with their cyber-safety concerns quickly and easily by using online ‘chat' with well trained helpline operators.

• Document ID: 83747 |
• Last modified: 15 May 2008, 11:12am