Phase Two Codes

Registered industry codes are enforceable under the Online Safety Act. In short, the phase one codes create improved standards across the entire online industry to address harmful Class 1 materials. The phase two codes provide greater safeguards around age-restricted material, such as online pornography. 

Class 1A is any material which:

• promotes or provides instruction of paedophile activity (‘child sexual exploitation’),
• advocates the doing of a terrorist act, including terrorist manifestos (‘pro-terror’),
• describes, depicts, promotes, instructs or otherwise deals with matters of extreme crime, cruelty or violence (including sexual violence) without justification (for example, murder, suicide, torture and rape), (‘extreme crime and violence’).

Class 1B is any material which:

• describes, depicts, expresses or otherwise deals with matters of crime, cruelty or violence without justification (‘crime and violence’),
• promotes, incites or instructs in matters of crime or violence (‘crime and violence’),
• describes, depicts, promotes, instructs or otherwise deals with matters of drug misuse or addiction without justification (‘drug-related content’)

Industry has further developed and defined each subcategory with reference to the national classification scheme. Please see the Head Terms, including Annexure A, for further detail.

• Class 1C material is a subcategory of class 1 material that describes or depicts specific fetish practices or fantasies;
• Class 2A material is classified X 18+ under the Classification Act; or has not been classified, but if it were to be classified under the Classification Act, it would likely be classified X 18+, because it depicts actual (not simulated) sexual activity between consenting adults.
• This captures what is usually understood to be pornography. 
• Class 2B material depicts high-impact sexually explicit material (including high impact nudity)
• Class 2C material describes or depicts high-impact violence and themes of crime and drug and alcohol dependency; but
• Class 2 content also includes self-harm material which encourages, promotes or provides instruction for
• Suicide
• Acts of deliberate self-injury; and/or
• An eating disorder or behaviour associated with an eating disorder.
• Class 2 material also includes simulated gambling material i.e a computer game that contains simulated gambling and is classified, or would be classified, R 18+ under the Classification Act. 

You can download the draft codes at the ‘class two codes’ page on this website. Submissions should be uploaded to the webform on this website and will be accepted until 11:59pm AEDT, November 22, 2024.   

Once finalised, the Consolidated Industry Codes of Practice for the Online Industry (Class 1C and Class 2 Material) will be submitted with a request for registration to the eSafety Commissioner by December 19, 2024. Registered codes are enforceable by the Commissioner.

In July 2024, the eSafety Commissioner requested that industry develop these codes with a deadline of December 19, 2024. The legal requirements that the codes would advance to the Online Safety Act 2021 are separate to the ongoing review of the Online Safety Act and recently proposed amendments to the Act in relation to age restrictions.

The draft codes must cover a wide range of participants that operate in the online environment, including providers of social media, messaging, search engine and app distribution services, as well as internet and hosting service providers, and manufacturers and suppliers of any equipment that connects to the internet, including smart devices and computers. It is important to note that they also cover operators of all websites that can be accessed by Australian users.

The draft codes released for consultation on 22 October have been significantly informed by input from eSafety; including through its July 2024 Position Paper, industry working groups, and expert consultation.