Enforcement problems

Classification cooperative scheme

16.32 Problems with the enforcement of classification laws under the classification cooperative scheme were identified in the 2011 Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee review of the National Classification Scheme. The Senate Committee examined the effectiveness of the call in notice procedure and the enforcement of classification laws by the states and territories.[32]

16.33 The report concluded that several aspects of the enforcement system require urgent attention. These included:

  • the lack of enforcement of call in notices;
  • the operations and resourcing of the CLS; and
  • inconsistent provisions in state and territory enforcement legislation.[33]

Online regulation

16.34 As discussed in various contexts elsewhere in this Report, enforcing classification laws in relation to online media content poses significant challenges, including:

  • the quantity of online content;
  • the fact the content is dynamic or mutable;
  • the number of persons producing content;
  • that content is produced and hosted all over the world; and
  • the difficulty of determining age and of restricting content.

[32] See, Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, Review of the National Classification Scheme: Achieving the Right Balance (2011), Ch 6.

[33] Ibid, recs 12, 13, 15–21.