The Pulse
Australia’s Digital Duty of Care Bill Brings AI Chatbots Under Safety Rules
Australia introduced its Digital Duty of Care Bill on October 15, 2026, setting proposed online safety requirements for services including AI chatbots. The bill also covers social media feeds, child safety, complaint handling and penalties
AI.info Team · Written with AI · fact-checked ·
“If you build it, you are responsible for its risks.”
Anika Wells, Minister for Communications
Australia introduced its Online Safety Amendment (Digital Duty of Care) Bill 2026 on October 15, proposing minimum safety standards for online services that include AI chatbots. The government’s October 20 summary says the bill would also cover games and social media platforms, making chatbot services part of a wider online safety framework rather than creating a standalone law for AI model development.
The proposal shifts responsibility toward companies to address harmful material and features in the services they provide. It would apply to risks affecting adults as well as additional protections for users under 18.
AI chatbots join games and social platforms
Under the bill, covered services would have to act against a defined list of seriously harmful material and conduct. The government names violent extremist material, sadistic online exploitation, child abuse and fake nude material among the categories. The bill also targets service features and tools that may cause harm, an approach Wells described as requiring companies to examine how their products work and take steps to reduce identified risks.
For children, the proposed protections include pornography and material that glorifies crime or life-endangering stunts, causes serious mental distress, encourages eating disorders or promotes hostility toward women. The list applies within the wider online-service framework; the announcement does not set out a separate set of AI-specific content rules for chatbots.
The bill would give the eSafety Commissioner power to issue removal notices for apps and websites designed, or predominantly used, to generate fake nude images of people. It would also halve the required response time for cyberbullying and abuse complaints, from 48 hours to 24, and allow the commissioner to set minimum standards for platform complaints and disputes processes.
A$109.2 million in proposed penalties
Services that fail to comply with the duty could face penalties of up to A$109.2 million, according to the government. That maximum applies to non-compliance with the proposed digital duty of care; it is not a penalty specifically attached to AI chatbots or to a particular type of harmful output.
The legislation also proposes a feed choice for social media users over 16. Platforms would have to let them choose between algorithm-recommended posts and content from people and pages they follow, a measure the government calls “My Feed, My Way.” The bill’s design thus combines obligations on service safety with a change to how social media users can select what appears in their feeds.
Changes after consultation
The government says the final bill clarifies that professional news material and entertainment media are exempt. In her October 15 speech, Wells said the government had removed the minister’s power to define additional harms through rules, leaving new categories to be added by Parliament through legislative amendment.
Those revisions followed consultation on an earlier exposure draft. The measure is now before Parliament, so its proposed duties and penalties are not yet law. For AI firms, the immediate point is the bill’s stated scope: chatbot services are included alongside games and social platforms, and the obligations described by the government concern online safety and service features—not a general licensing system for AI models.