Written by staff writer.
The Australian Government will not implement a recommendation made earlier this year by its eSafety Commissioner to introduce an age verification tool, a so-called porn passport. The commissioner recommended age verification as a way to block minors from accessing online pornography. In its response published on August 30, the government says the currently available age assurance tools are immature and raise several other risks.
The government asked the eSafety Commissioner to look at how to implement mandatory age verification for online pornographic material and also sought to establish if such a tool was practicable. The government’s request was in response to a key recommendation in the 2020 House of Representatives “Protecting the Age of Innocence” report.
A 2017 report commissioned by the Australian Institute of Family Studies found that 44% of children aged between nine and 16 had seen online pornography in the previous month, with most seeing it on pornography websites but also on social media feeds, ads on social media, social media messages, group chats, and social media private group/pages.
But any age verification tool would require all viewers of adult content online to prove their bona fides before accessing the material.
The commissioner submitted his recommendation on age verification to the government in March. The commissioner’s investigation found that the online age assurance tools currently available on the market are immature, albeit developing. The investigation found for an age verification tool to be accurate and efficient, it must work reliably without circumvention, be implementable (including in jurisdictions outside Australia), and it must balance privacy and security needs.
The eSafety Commissioner suggested a trial rather than legislation mandating it, but nearly six months after receiving the eSafety Commissioner’s recommendations, the current Australian Government has declined to go down this avenue.
“The Roadmap acknowledges that pornography is readily available through websites hosted offshore and also through a wide range of digital platforms accessed by children,” the response reads. “The Roadmap makes clear that a decision to mandate age assurance is not ready to be taken. Without the technology to support mandatory age verification being available in the near term, the government will require industry to do more and will hold them to account.”
Instead, the government will rely on its Online Safety Act 2021 to require the publishers of pornographic content online to do more to limit access and exposure to the content, particularly by under-18s. The Act targets a broad range of online adult content publishers.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the adult digital industry was “on notice.” That industry also opposed any age verification legislation, saying it preferred a “sensible approach” involving educating children and their parents about online access to pornographic content. Privacy advocates also welcomed the government’s decision, saying any age verification tool requires collecting additional personal information, which raises privacy and security risks.
Rowland says the government is continuing its “comprehensive approach” to addressing the problems of under-18s accessing pornography. That approach includes a variety of initiatives with over AUD200 million in funding over the next decade.
