Legislative, policy and educational responses to online risks
Catherine Page Jeffery · 2025
This chapter provides an account of the Australian online safety environment, documenting the creation of legislation in 2015 which established the Office of the eSafety Commissioner, and which was updated in 2022 to further strengthen the Commissioner’s powers, as well as a range of other interventions. An extensive range of cyber safety resources and programs has been developed by the Government as well as a suite of independent providers, to educate young people and parents about online risk. This chapter argues too many programs and resources adopt a deficit approach which do not adequately account for the existing knowledges, experiences ,and practices of children and their parents, which may limit their utility.