Social Media, Big Tech, and Big Tobacco: Is There a Connection?
Written by John Pane, EFA Chair. For years, concerns about children, smartphones, and social media have occupied a grey zone — intuitively alarming, politically contentious, and legally elusive. Fast forward to 2025 and Australia passes the social media ban that we had to have. Problem solved, right? Well, the government seems to think so. But […]
EFA Challenges Australians to Fix the “Privacy Paradox” This World Data Privacy Day
Written by John Pane, Chair of Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc. If you’re reading this on January 26, it’s Australia Day. As a public holiday, odds are you’re at a BBQ, enjoying the company of friends and family, and the familiar mix of conversations and banter that BBQs usually bring. Perhaps you have a delicious lamb […]
Open Letter from Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc to the ACCC
This open letter was written by Gillian Dempsey, a barrister and board member of the Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA). Currently the e-Safety Commissioner has attempted to only protect minors from predatory algorithms from particular scheduled Social Media applications pursuant to the Online Safety Rules 2025. These rules only apply to children under the age of […]
Regulate the system, not the child
This post was written by EFA Vice Chair Julian Watchorn. The lessons emerging from AI governance debates are directly relevant to online safety, where reliance on voluntary compliance and identity-based controls threatens privacy and rights while leaving harmful platform design largely unregulated. Much of the current debate about children’s online safety has narrowed to age […]
Digital Fairness, AI Self-Regulation and the Limits of Voluntary Safety Framework
This post was written by EFA Vice Chair Julian Watchorn and EFA board member Kirsten Frederiksen. 1. The Limits of Corporate Self-Regulation A longstanding axiom in public policy is that corporate self-regulation is ineffective whenvast sums of money are at stake. This has been demonstrated repeatedly across sectors such as finance, environmental protection, tobacco, gambling, […]