Pacific partners in online safety

Part 1 - Lead Organizer

Contact Person

Ella Serry

Organization / Affiliation (Please state "Individual" if appropriate)

eSafety Commissioner, Australia

Designation

A/g Manager

Gender

Female

Economy of Residence

Australia

Primary Stakeholder Group

Government

Part 2 - Session Proposal

Your proposal is for

Main Conference (Day 1-3)

Session Title

Pacific partners in online safety

Track

Inclusion Trust

Session Format

Fireside Chat

Where do you plan to organize your session?

Virtual / online

Specific Issues for Discussion

In February 2021, Australia's eSafety Commissioner and Fiji's Online Safety Commission announced a world-first online safety regulator partnership. As the world’s first countries with online safety regulators, Australia and Fiji's sister regulatory agencies collaborate, share challenges and lessons , and advance online safety across the Pacific region. This session will involve hearing from both Commissioners about their new online safety partnership, their shared commitment to helping create safer online environments in our region and across the world.

Describe the Relevance of Your Session to APrIGF

Internet access and usage is growing rapidly in Pacific island nations, with significant numbers of people gaining access to the benefits this connectivity provides. As a result, governments are paying greater attention to the policy and legal requirements of the digital environment – which means embedding and prioritising safety as this infrastructure develops. Governments around the world are now clearly focused on regulating for a range of online harms, not only must we seek consistency in these global rules, we need to take care to preserve an open and free digital environment. We know online harms are not bound by national borders and these issues require governments and industry working together towards a shared vision.

Methodology / Agenda

The session would be a ‘fireside chat’ between the Commissioners, playing the existing video (https://vimeo.com/544372470) and following up with a further conversations/discussion between Commissioners, followed by Q&A.

Please provide 3 subject matter tags that best describe your session.

#onlinesafety #pacific #capacitybuilding

Moderators & Speakers Info (Please complete where possible)

Please explain the rationale for choosing each of the above contributors to the session.

Julie Inman Grant is Australia’s eSafety Commissioner. In this role, Commissioner Inman Grant sees the fallout of serious online harms every day. These harms are well-known and preventable when safety protections are embedded upfront. She believes this is a crisis of tech leadership that requires a shift in design ethos from “moving fast and breaking things” to a mindset that encourages responsibility, transparency and greater user empowerment. Julie has extensive experience in the non-profit and government sectors, and spent two decades working in senior public policy and safety roles in the tech industry at Microsoft, Twitter and Adobe. Anne Dunn-Baleilevuka is Fiji’s Online Safety Commissioner, heading up the Online Safety Commission or OSC. The OSC provides Fijians a space to resolve concerns and complaints with respect to online abuse such as cyberbullying and promote online safety for all Fijians. With a passion for collaboration Commissioner Baleilevuka seeks to promote cyber safety in a cohesive and inclusive manner while maintaining respectful boundaries. With interests that lie beyond the digital realm, Anne is also an avid participant in youth empowerment especially of young women around the country.