ISPs face new child porn reporting obligations

The Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Chris Ellison, said he had written to all major ISPs to advise them of their new obligations. An ISP or Internet Content Host (ICH) will face penalties of AU$11,000 for the individual and AU$55,000 for body corporates if they are made aware that their service can be used to access material they have reasonable grounds to believe is child pornography or child abuse material and they do not refer details of that material to the AFP within a reasonable time of becoming aware of the material's existence.

It will also be a federal offence under the new provisions -- carrying a penalty of 10 years' imprisonment -- for a person to use a carriage service such as the Internet to access, transmit or make available child porn or child abuse material, supplementing existing state and territory laws.

"ISPs and ICH's should be aware that come March 1, they will be obligated to join the federal government's frontline fight against abusers of children online," Senator Ellison said.