6 min read · Updated 2026-10-18
In short
Under the Spam Act 2003, a marketing email or text needs the family's consent, must say who sent it and how to contact them, and must carry an unsubscribe that works, with an unsubscribe taking effect within 5 business days. A message that only gives factual information, such as a lesson cancellation, is exempt from the consent and unsubscribe rules but must still identify the sender. Keep promotions out of operational messages so they stay operational.
General information, not legal advice. Laws and the regulators' rules change: check the sources below, and talk to your own adviser about your centre.
The centre is shut tomorrow because of a storm warning, and the admin needs every family to know tonight. Last month three families unsubscribed from the newsletter. Do they get the closure text? And next week's holiday workshop offer: can it go to every family on the books, or only some? Every tutoring centre sends both kinds of message, and the law treats them differently. The law is the Spam Act 2003, a federal Act enforced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). This is a plain summary; for your own situation, check the ACMA's guidance or ask your adviser.
Which messages the Act covers
The Act applies to electronic messages: email, and messages sent to a phone account, which takes in text messages. A voice call over an ordinary phone service is not an electronic message under the Act. Its consent and unsubscribe rules apply to commercial electronic messages, meaning a message where the purpose, or one of the purposes, is to offer, advertise or promote goods or services, or the business that supplies them.
- Commercial: "Enrolments for Term 1 are open, book before Friday", a holiday workshop offer, a referral discount, a newsletter that promotes your programs.
- Usually not commercial: "Tuesday's lesson is cancelled because your tutor is unwell", an invoice, a closure notice, a safety notice, a reply to a question the family asked.
The content decides it, including how it is presented and where its links lead. A cancellation notice with a "book a holiday workshop now" banner at the bottom has a promotional purpose too, and becomes commercial.
Rule one: consent
- Express consent: the family said yes, for example by ticking a box on your enrolment form, over the phone or face to face. The ACMA calls this best practice.
- Inferred consent: where the person gave you their address and there is an ongoing relationship the marketing directly relates to. The ACMA says this is less reliable than express consent, and simply finding an address published somewhere does not count.
Two traps catch centres. You cannot send an email or text asking for consent, because the ACMA treats that request as a marketing message itself. And if anyone questions it, you are the one who has to show consent existed, so keep a record of who said yes, when and how. A separate, unticked marketing box on the enrolment form gives you that record from day one.
Rule two: say who you are
Every commercial message must accurately identify the business that authorised it and include correct contact details, which must stay correct for at least 30 days after sending. Use your centre's business name, not a tutor's first name, and a contact someone actually answers. This rule also applies to the factual messages that are exempt from the other two.
Rule three: an unsubscribe that works
A commercial message must carry clear unsubscribe instructions. The ACMA says the unsubscribe must be honoured within 5 working days, cost nothing beyond the usual cost of replying, keep working for at least 30 days, and not make the person log in, create an account or give extra details. In practice:
- Email: an unsubscribe link in every promotional email.
- Text: a line such as "Reply STOP to opt out", sent from a number that can receive replies. The ACMA notes a text sent under a name rather than a number generally cannot.
- One list of who has opted out, checked before every promotional send, whichever staff member is sending.
- An unsubscribe from promotions does not stop operational messages. A family who opted out of offers still needs to hear that a lesson is cancelled.
- Consent
Express, like a ticked box, or inferred. If questioned, you must show it.
- Say who you are
Your business name and contact details correct for at least 30 days.
- An unsubscribe that works
In every promotion, honoured within 5 working days.
- Factual messages
A cancellation or closure notice is exempt from consent and unsubscribe, but not from saying who you are.
Operational messages
A message that only gives factual information, and would not be commercial without your name, logo and contact details, is exempt from the consent and unsubscribe rules but must still identify the sender. A lesson cancellation, a room change, a closure or a reminder of tomorrow's lesson normally sits here. Keep it that way:
- Operational messages say what is happening and nothing else
- No offer, discount or promotional link is added to a cancellation, reminder or invoice
- Every message names the centre and how to contact it
- Promotions go only to families with consent on record
- Every promotion carries an unsubscribe link or a Reply STOP line
- Opt-outs are acted on well within 5 working days and checked before every send
- Bounced addresses are taken off the list rather than mailed again
Who is responsible
The ACMA says you still need consent even when someone else sends your marketing for you, so treat every promotion your staff send, from any tool, as the centre's own message. A tutor texting an offer to families from a personal phone is the hardest kind to keep within the rules. The ACMA can take enforcement action against a business that breaks them.
How XTutio keeps the two apart
Back to the storm warning. In XTutio, Broadcast has no default kind: the sender chooses a promotion or an operational notice, and a notice is only for a closure, cancelled or moved lessons, a safety notice or an emergency. The sender confirms it holds no promotion, wording that reads as a promotion is refused as a notice, and every notice is recorded in the audit log. So the closure reaches the families who unsubscribed from offers, and the workshop offer does not. See operations.
Behind every send is one opt-out list per centre. A family's unsubscribe, a STOP reply and an unticked marketing box stop promotions only; an address that bounced stops everything, so it is never mailed again. Every promotional email carries an unsubscribe link, and one with no working link is refused rather than sent. A promotional text ends with your centre's name and "Reply STOP to opt out". Nothing is ever emailed to a child's login address, and Broadcast never goes to students. Admins can see the list and lift an entry, with a reason, when a parent asks to hear from the centre again. To send from your own domain, see connecting your email, and XInbox for the mailbox staff write from.
Questions centres ask
- Is a lesson cancellation text covered by the Spam Act?
- A message that only gives factual information, such as a cancelled lesson, is generally exempt from the Act's consent and unsubscribe rules. It must still identify your centre and how to contact you, and adding a promotion to it can make it commercial.
- How quickly must a tutoring centre act on an unsubscribe?
- The ACMA says within 5 working days. Act on it sooner where you can, and make sure every staff member's sends check the same opt-out list.
- Can I email families to ask if they want our newsletter?
- No. The ACMA says you cannot send an electronic message asking for consent, because that request is itself a marketing message. Ask on the enrolment form, by phone or in person instead.
- Do text messages count under the Spam Act?
- Yes. The Act covers messages sent to a phone account as well as email, so the same consent, identification and unsubscribe rules apply to a promotional text.
Sources
- Avoid sending spam, Australian Communications and Media Authority. Read 2026-10-18.
- Spam Act 2003 (Compilation No. 10), Federal Register of Legislation. Read 2026-10-17.
