The principal activity of OHPI

The principal activity of OHPI is the promotion of the prevention or control of human behaviour that is harmful or abusive to human beings, specifically Emotional Abuse, Physical Abuse, Self Harm and suicide. This is carried out through the following activities:

  1. Promoting the prevention of abuse by running campaigns against the propagation of online hate that can result in emotional abuse and physical abuse
  2. Promoting the prevention of abuse and better control of abusive behaviour through education, research and by stimulating debate on (i) online hate, (ii) the prevention of online hate, and (iii) on the link between online hate and emotional and physical abuse
  3. Promoting the prevention of abuse and better control of abusive behaviour by equipping young people with relevant skills through youth leadership programs focused on the promotion of multiculturalism and equal opportunity and other approaches to combat the spread of online hate
  4. Promoting the prevention of abuse and better control of abusive behaviour by creating an online community, open to the public, that is active in controlling abusive behaviour, namely the spreading of online hate, through monitoring, reporting and engagement with service providers
  5. Other activities that promote the prevention or control of online hate that causes emotional abuse, physical abuse, self harm and suicide.

The Work of the Online Hate Prevention Institute

The institution will have a particularly focus on the prevention of emotional abuse and physical abuse resulting from online racial discrimination and online hate, with a particular emphasis on online antisemitism. It may also focus on other forms of online hate that are emotionally abusive or may lead to physical abuse to human beings, including hate directed against other ethnic, cultural, national and religious minority groups, people with disabilities, the LGBT community, the indigenous communities and other groups which Commonwealth or State laws consider it unlawful to discriminate against. The Institute’s work may also extend to promoting the prevention and control of online hate that results in emotional and physical abuse directed against individuals, such as cyber bullying.

The Institute also will seek to educate and stimulate debate on issues relating to online hate as a means of promoting the prevention of emotional and physical abuse that results from online hate. It will conduct research into online behaviour that is harmful or abusive to human beings, in particular, research into those forms of online discrimination and hate it seeks to prevent. This research will be made publically available through online report and articles, publication in scholarly journals, and media articles and shared at conferences. The institute will have a particular focus on empirical reporting approaches for online hate, law reform to tackle online hate, schemes for controlling online hate, and schemes for building social rejection of hate within online society.

The institute will engage in the development, maintenance, and operation of software tools that support and enable new types of research into online hate. This research will promote the prevention of emotional and physical abuse by raising both awareness of the problem and introducing new ideas for control and prevention.

The institute may develop programs to assist, educate and develop young people so they can become leaders in the online world and play an informed role in the promotion of online multiculturalism and equal opportunity as a means of preventing the emotional and physical abuse that can result from online hate. The institute may develop programs to assist, educate and develop young people’s ability to recognise and effectively respond to cyberbullying both as victims and as effective third parties who observe cyberbullying. This helps prevent and control emotional and potential follow up physical abuse.