Age Verification for Porn

The Australian internet industry has produced draft censorship rules related to age/ID verification. The schedule is for these to come into force in 2025.

One of the rules that has caught the attention is that search engines will be required to age/ID verify users before links to porn or gambling sites sites can be provided.

The draft codes will apply to websites, social media, video games, search engines, gaming companies, app developers and internet service providers, among others.

As is the case in most other countries, the authorities are refusing to specify exactly what age/ID verification mechanisms will be acceptable and will leave it to companies to take enormous commerical risks in guessing what mechanisms will be acceptable. Examples of options include checking photo ID, facial age estimation, credit card checks, digital ID wallets or systems, or attestation by a parent or guardian.

The codes have been developed by the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (Amta), the Communications Alliance, the Consumer Electronics Suppliers Association (CESA), the Digital Industry Group Inc. (Digi), and the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA).

Dr Jennifer Duxbury, Digi's director for policy, regulatory affairs, and research, told Guardian Australia that the group doesn't speak for the porn industry, and added:

I can't predict what their reaction might be, whether they would withdraw from the market, or what's the likely outcome.

Another layer of secrecy is being stripped from Australian internet users. At a time when users are being forced to and over personal ID data in the name of age verification, it seems that governments will be quick in demanding that internet companies have to hand over such data to them.

It was announced that internet companies will now be forced to reveal the ages of active users supposedly so that the Australian Government can get a grip on the impact these platforms are having on Australian kids.

Last week the Albanese Government announced sweeping reforms intended to boost transparency and accountability for digital platforms used by Australians including popular social media, messaging and gaming services. Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the government had amended the Basic Online Safety Expectations to better address new and emerging online safety issues and help hold the tech industry accountable.

The new Determination will also require companies to provide, on request of the eSafety Commissioner, a report on the number of active end-users of services in Australia, broken down according to the number of users who are children or adults.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said that without information on users' ages, the Government was flying blind. Inman Grant said these strengthened powers meant her office would now be able to find out precisely how many children are on specific services. She said:

This needs to be a starting point of understanding how many under-aged users are on these platforms today, otherwise governments are flying blind. If we're serious about effectively managing the ages and stages at which a child can partake in social media, we need to move forward with all technology companies deploying effective age-assurance systems.

As part of its efforts to combat violence against women, the government of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced funding to test age/ID verification methods for pornography websites in a pilot program. This move came after Albanese and the national cabinet ruled in 2023 that mandatory age verification was not yet an option.

AUS $6.5 million has been allocated for a pilot of age assurance to test the technology's effectiveness. The pilot will identify available age assurance products and assess their efficacy, including in relation to privacy and security. The outcomes of this pilot will support the eSafety Commissioners' ongoing implementation of censorship rules under the Online Safety Act.

Australia's prime minister has also moved to ban deepfake and artificial intelligence pornography as part of a $925million bid to counter a  rise in violence against women. Sharing sexually explicit material using artificial intelligence will also be subject to serious criminal penalties.

Albanese noted community concerns about toxic male views online and young men's exposure to violent imagery on the internet.

 

Offsite Comment: The Australian Government Is Making Porn a Scapegoat for Rising Violence Against Women

5th May 2024. Thanks to Trog. See article from vice.com by Darcy Deviant

Here is an artlcie offering a very sensible counter argument to the usual porn is bad diatribes:

As a sex worker, the most concerning part of this conversation is the use of the sex industry as a political scapegoat for men's violence.

Let's be clear: the porn industry was never created to provide sex education to children. But let's also be honest: if your child is actively seeking out pornography, or so-called violent pornography, perhaps there's a gap in their learning about sex and sexuality that the education system or a guardian has failed to fill.

See article from vice.com

The Australian Government has been researching the way forward for age verification requirements for porn websites. Unlike the UK government who only 'think about the children', the Australian Government have also been thinking of the data protection and security risks to porn users who's ID data will inevitably find its way into the wrong hands.

The government writes in surprisingly hard hitting report. The Roadmap to Age Verification is a document produced by Australia's eSafety Commissioner. The document includes the paragraph:

The Roadmap finds age assurance technologies are immature, and present privacy, security, implementation and enforcement risks

‘Age verification’ describes measures which could determine a person’s age to a high level of accuracy, such as by using official government identity documents. However, the Roadmap examines the use of broader ‘age assurance’ technologies which include measures that perform ‘age estimation’ functions. The Roadmap notes action already underway by industry to introduce and improve age assurance and finds that the market for age assurance products is immature, but developing.

It is clear from the Roadmap that at present, each type of age verification or age assurance technology comes with its own privacy, security, effectiveness and implementation issues.

For age assurance to be effective, it must:
• work reliably without circumvention;
• be comprehensively implemented, including where pornography is hosted outside of Australia’s jurisdiction; and
• balance privacy and security, without introducing risks to the personal information of adults who choose to access legal pornography.

Age assurance technologies cannot yet meet all these requirements. While industry is taking steps to further develop these technologies, the Roadmap finds that the age assurance market is, at this time, immature.

The Roadmap makes clear that a decision to mandate age assurance is not ready to be taken.

Australia's federal government is looking to bring on board credit card company Mastercard as part of its move toward developing a digital identity and age verification system for porn viewing.

Mastercard announced that it has joined into a new partnership with the Digital Transformation Agency and is seeking accreditation to become a digital identity service provider. It said it was looking to offer ways for the federal government to achieve an online age verification system.

But privacy experts are warning the government needed to pull the brakes on implementing without input from tech experts and the wider community.

Digital rights expert from Electronic Frontiers Australia Justin Warren said past experience had shown the government often began consultations long after plans had been drawn up. He added that it was important users be given options to protect their privacy.

Protecting the age of innocence

Report of the inquiry into age verification for online wagering and online pornography

House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs

Executive Summary

The Committee’s inquiry considered the potential role for online age verification in protecting children and young people in Australia from exposure to online wagering and online pornography.

Evidence to the inquiry revealed widespread and genuine concern among the community about the serious impacts on the welfare of children and young people associated with exposure to certain online content, particularly pornography.

The Committee heard that young people are increasingly accessing or being exposed to pornography on the internet, and that this is associated with a range of harms to young people’s health, education, relationships, and wellbeing. Similarly, the Committee heard about the potential for exposure to online wagering at a young age to lead to problem gambling later in life.

Online age verification is not a new concept. However, the Committee heard that as governments have sought to strengthen age restrictions on online content, the technology for online age verification has become more sophisticated, and there are now a range of age-verification services available which seek to balance effectiveness and ease-of-use with privacy, safety, and security.

In considering these issues, the Committee was concerned to see that, in so much as possible, age restrictions that apply in the physical world are also applied in the online world.

The Committee recognised that age verification is not a silver bullet, and that protecting children and young people from online harms requires government, industry, and the community to work together across a range of fronts. However, the Committee also concluded that age verification can create a significant barrier to prevent young people—and particularly young children—from exposure to harmful online content.

The Committee’s recommendations therefore seek to support the implementation of online age verification in Australia.

The Committee recommended that the Digital Transformation Agency lead the development of standards for online age verification. These standards will help to ensure that online age verification is accurate and effective, and that the process for legitimate consumers is easy, safe, and secure.

The Committee also recommended that the Digital Transformation Agency develop an age-verification exchange to support a competitive ecosystem for third-party age verification in Australia.

In relation to pornography, the Committee recommended that the eSafety Commissioner lead the development of a roadmap for the implementation of a regime of mandatory age verification for online pornographic material, and that this be part of a broader, holistic approach to address the risks and harms associated with online pornography.

In relation to wagering, the Committee recommended that the Australian Government implement a regime of mandatory age verification, alongside the existing identity verification requirements. The Committee also recommended the development of educational resources for parents, and consideration of options for restricting access to loot boxes in video games, including though the use of age verification.

The Committee hopes that together these recommendations will contribute to a safer online environment for children and young people.

Lastly, the Committee acknowledges the strong public interest in the inquiry and expresses its appreciation to the individuals and organisations that shared their views with the Committee.

The Australian government writes:

We are seeking feedback on proposals for a new Online Safety Act to improve Australia's online safety regulatory framework.

The proposed reforms follow a 2018 review of online safety legislation which recommended the replacement of the existing framework with a single Online Safety Act.

Key proposals include:

• A set of basic online safety expectations for industry (initially social media platforms), clearly stating community expectations, with associated reporting requirements.

• An enhanced cyberbullying scheme for Australian children to capture a range of online services, not just social media platforms.

• A new cyber abuse scheme for Australian adults to facilitate the removal of serious online abuse and harassment and introduce a new end user take-down and civil penalty regime.

• Consistent take-down requirements for image-based abuse, cyber abuse, cyberbullying and seriously harmful online content, requiring online service providers to remove such material within 24 hours of receiving an eSafety Commissioner request.

• A reformed online content scheme requiring the Australian technology industry to be proactive in addressing access to harmful online content. The scheme would also expand the eSafety Commissioner's powers to address illegal and harmful content on websites hosted overseas.

• An ancillary service provider scheme to provide the eSafety Commissioner with the capacity to disrupt access to seriously harmful online material made available via search engines, app stores and other ancillary service providers.

• An additional power for the eSafety Commissioner to respond rapidly to an online crisis event (such as the Christchurch terrorist attacks) by requesting internet service providers block access to sites hosting seriously harmful content.

The consultation runs to 5pm 19th February 2020

The former head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), former 'eSafety Commissioner', Alastair MacGibbon, has told the House of Representatives Standing Committee On Social Policy And Legal Affairs looking to age verification for online wagering and online pornography , that any form of online age verification would require a biometric component. He said:

I think biometrics -- with all of the problems associated with biometrics, and they are not a silver bullet -- is the only way you could really have an online system.

A scenario relying solely on Home Affairs' Face and Document Verification Services to provide proof of age would not work on its own, due to the ability for children to be able to take, for instance, a driver's licence and verify it with the system.

What will be harder for the child is to get my face in front of the camera and use it for the purposes of proof of age, he said on Friday.

I'm not advocating for it to be used as such ...BUT... it could be used as a way of saying, 'This face that's now in front of this camera is attached to a driver's licence and a passport in Australia, and that person is over the age of 18'.

He was not very sympathetic to porn viewers who may end up being victims of hackers, fraud, identity crime, or blackmail. He added

Australians need to accept that there is no such thing as a completely secure connected device, that there will be failures, and everything in life is about balancing value and risk.

You do run the risk that Australians who have a privacy concern will be forced into darker parts of the web to avoid online verification and that will be an unintended consequences any such scheme.

Well with an 'eSafety Commissioner' like that, I think Australian internet users should be getting a little bit nervous.