AMTA Chief Executive Officer Chris Althaus has been appointed an industry representative to the new Cyber-Safety Consultative Working Group announced yesterday by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy.

Mr Althaus joins representatives from community groups, internet service providers, industry associations, business and government. The first meeting of the Group is scheduled for late May 2008.

Senator Stephen Conroy announced the members of the Cyber-Safety Consultative Working Group as part of the Government's $125.8 million program to improve online safety for children.

“The Group will consider those aspects of cyber-safety that Australian children particularly face, such as cyber-bullying, identity theft and exposure to illegal and inappropriate content,” Senator Conroy said.

“It will also provide advice to the Government on priorities and measures required by government and industry to ensure world's best practice safeguards for Australian children engaging in the digital economy.”

“The Consultative Working Group is a key component of the Australian Government's $125.8 million Cyber-Safety plan.”

“Government policy needs to be responsive to the evolving online world and the widespread use of new technologies in the digital economy. The Group will assist Government to prioritise its responses,” Senator Conroy said.

“I thank the members of the Group for their commitment to assist with the vital work of protecting Australian children in the online environment.”

Mr Althaus said the committee provided an good opportunity for the industry to have input into the process to ensure that there were robust consumer safeguards based on practical rules and regulations that did not impose prescriptive and unworkable burdens on business and result in high engagements costs that were inevitably passed on to consumers.

“Our industry is committed to participating in this forum with regulators and community groups to ensure that service delivery meets community standards and expectations for responsibility and accountability,” he said.

“We have demonstrated with the development of the Mobile Premium Services Industry Scheme that our industry is committed to maintaining public trust and confidence in mobile phone services with robust consumer safeguards and standards.”

Mr Althaus said AMTA had formed partnerships with the Australian Council of State School Organisations (ACSSO), the peak body for parents of schoolchildren, and the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, to work with the education sector to maximize the positive contributions that mobile telecommunications offer to students, parents and teachers.

The Alannah and Madeline Foundation’s CEO, Dr Judith Slocombe, is also represented on the Cyber-Safety Consultative Working Group as is Peter Coroneos, the CEO of the Internet Industry Association.

A Joint Parliamentary Standing Committee will also be established to investigate and report on cyber-safety issues.

Senator Conroy said: “The Australian Government is committed to working closely with industry to address any concerns about implementing the cyber-safety plan. These concerns will be carefully considered and will inform implementation of the Australian Government's comprehensive cyber-safety policy.”

A list of members of the Group is below. For more information about the cyber-safety plan and the Group visit www.dbcde.gov.au

Consultative Working Group on cyber-safety

Membership, 2008