Australian PM Abbott delivers keynote speech during B20 Summit in Sydney
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott delivers his keynote speech during the B20 Summit in Sydney, July 17, 2014. REUTERS/Lisa Maree Williams/Po

The Australian government may fine social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook in case the website authorities refuse to remove harmful material to young users.

Parliamentary Secretary for Communications Paul Fletcher and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Wednesday that the federal government would create the post of Children's E-safety Commissioner of the end of 2014. The Brisbane Times reported that the commissioner would be authorised for issuing legal notices to major social media websites to ensure "E-safety." The commissioner will also be allowed to issue such notices to individuals who refuse to remove content which may be harmful to children. The refusal of individuals may mean a referral to state police. The job of the commissioner is going to include educating the community ways to tackle the issue of cyber bullying.

According to Turnbull, the government was acting on what it had promised during the elections. Prime Minister Tony Abbott's government earlier promised to make sure that the children in Australia were safe from cyber bullying. He said that the government was getting the legislation prepared for introducing the same in the Parliament. He also said that the commissioner would ideally act within hours of any reported incident of cyber bullying.

Fletcher, on the other hand, said that the commissioner would work "directly" with the major social media websites, The Australian reported. "The e-safety commissioner will assess it, and if it is cyber-bullying material the commissioner will then go to the large social media sites and say 'you need to take this down'," Fletcher said, "In all the consultations that we've done, the No 1 message that comes back is ­people say, 'look there's very nasty stuff about me online on this social media site and I don't seem to be able to do anything about it'.''

According to Fletcher, the government is also considering sanctions against the social media websites which do not comply with its "take down orders." However, he said that the how the government would react was not yet completely decided. The actions of the Abbott government against the violating websites may also include fines, Fletcher said.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au