eSafety Commissioner Rejects Claims Digital Duty of Care Enables Online Monitoring

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant speaks to the media in Canberra, Australia, on Nov. 5, 2025. Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has dismissed “ludicrous” claims that the federal government’s planned digital duty of care would see her office monitoring Australians online.

Speaking to the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, Inman Grant said the proposed law was about determining whether tech companies’ claims about product safety were accurate.

“It’s about testing claims,” she said. “We need them to demonstrate that they’re actually safe.”

Her comments came after Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam asked whether eSafety used AI programs to test the safety features of AI services, noting that “there’s only so many people who are going to be typing in prompts to test guardrails.”

Inman Grant said the agency did not use AI for that purpose. “We’re not proactively monitoring the internet, and we’re not using AI bots,” she said.

In her opening statement, Inman Grant told the Committee that the regulator needed “robust information-gathering powers to examine algorithms and platform data.”

The draft bill, released for public comment in September, would require online services to provide the eSafety Commissioner with their written risk assessments within 30 days of a request.

It would also empower the Commissioner to summon people to answer questions under oath and allow her and approved researchers to use fake accounts for online safety investigations and research.

The proposed duty of care would build on an existing framework of online safety regulation.

In September 2025, eSafety registered six industry codes covering services including social media platforms, app stores, gaming services, AI chatbots and pornography websites, under powers provided by the Online Safety Act 2021.

Those codes address specific safety obligations, while the proposed duty of care would impose broader requirements on digital services to assess and mitigate risks associated with their products.

The Institute of Public Affairs, a free-market think tank, has opposed the duty of care. In July, Andrew Bushnell, director of its law and freedom program, said the proposed law would “put the onus on tech giants to somehow make the internet safe under threat of government prosecution.”

Inman Grant told the Committee she would no longer be eSafety Commissioner when the duty of care came into effect. Her current term ends in January 2027.

We had a problem loading this article. Please enable javascript or use a different browser. If the issue persists, please visit our help center.

Source link