Resources

Know your legal obligations as a community manager, moderator or social media lead in Australia.

This 2026 edition explains the laws and standards most relevant to your daily work, with practical tips to help you stay safe and compliant.

New in the 2026 edition

• Australia’s digital duty of care and what it asks of the spaces you run

• The social media minimum age, in force since 10 December 2025

• The right to disconnect and what it means for after-hours moderation

What's inside

• Online Safety Act 2021 and Criminal Code obligations

• Defamation, copyright, spam and consumer law

• Privacy, hate speech and contempt of court

• Young people, regulated industries and work health and safety

• Crisis communications, volunteer laws, GDPR and voluntary codes

• A compliance checklist, glossary and links to further help

Who it's for

Community managers, moderators and social media leads, professional or volunteer, and the organisations that employ them. It applies to any digital space where people gather, from comment sections and private groups to Discord servers and forums.

Format: PDF · Instant download

Prepared by professional community managers, moderators, legal experts and researchers. General information, not legal advice.

Activity numbers show what members do, not whether your community is working for them.

This practical guide helps you move beyond vanity metrics and answer the real question: how thriving are we?

What's inside

• How community health differs from community success

• The four pillars of Sense of Community and why they’re important

• A ready-to-use survey template with scoring instructions

• How to interpret your results, from weak to strong health

• Activity metrics worth tracking, including churn, responsiveness and participation

• Benchmarking for ongoing tracking

Who it's for

Community managers and leaders who need to show the value of their community and build a credible case for investment.

Format PDF · Instant download

Australia's Online Safety Act sets standards for everyone who hosts people online, not just big platforms.

This guide explains what the Act means for community managers, social media managers and moderators, and turns its requirements into a practical checklist.

What's inside

What the Online Safety Act is and who it applies to

The five key areas of compliance: complaints mechanisms, escalation processes, reporting functionality, record keeping and the Basic Online Safety Expectations

What the eSafety Commissioner can ask of you, and how you need to respond

An Online Safety Act checklist to assess your community

Practical moderation tips to keep compliance simple

A glossary of key terms

Who it's for

Community managers, social media managers and moderators, professional or volunteer, and any organisations hosting online communities in Australia.

Format PDF · Instant download

Prepared by professional community managers and researchers with Australian lawyers specialising in this area. General information, not legal advice.

Communities focused on sensitive topics, or with vulnerable members, carry higher stakes for members and hosts alike.

This guide helps community managers and moderators identify, assess and reduce those risks, so your community can stay a safe place to connect.

What's inside

• Five types of risk: external, internal, technical, psychological and emotional, and legal and regulatory

• Real examples, from coordinated harassment and doxxing to threats of self-harm and weaponised reporting

• How to assess the risks facing your community

• Managing risk in four stages: pre-risk evaluation, mitigation planning, crisis management, and reflection and documentation

• Supporting moderators who do this demanding work

• Best practice tips and a risk management checklist

• A glossary and tools for further help

Who it's for

Stewards and moderators of communities on sensitive topics such as health, identity or crisis support, and of communities involving vulnerable members.

Format PDF · Instant download