{"id":3984,"date":"2025-09-09T01:57:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T01:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/3984\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T01:57:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T01:57:20","slug":"face-age-and-id-checks-using-the-internet-in-australia-is-about-to-fundamentally-change-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/3984\/","title":{"rendered":"Face age and ID checks? Using the internet in Australia is about to fundamentally change | Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the old adage goes, \u201cOn the internet, nobody knows you\u2019re a dog<\/a>\u201d. But in Australia it might soon be the case that everything from search engines and social media sites, to app stores and AI chatbots will have to know your age.<\/p>\n

The Albanese government trumpeted the passage of its legislation banning under 16s from social media<\/a> \u2013 which will come into effect in December \u2013 but new industry codes developed by the tech sector and eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant under the Online Safety Act will probably have much larger ramifications for how Australians access the internet.<\/p>\n

Measures to be deployed by online services could include looking at your account history, or using facial age assurance and bank card checks. Identity checks using IDs such as drivers licences to keep children under 16 off social media will also apply to logged-in accounts for search engines from December, under an industry code that came into force at the end of June.<\/p>\n

The code will require search engines to have age assurance measures for all accounts, and where an account holder is determined to be aged under 18, the search engine would be required to switch on safe search features to filter out content such as pornography from search results.<\/p>\n

Six more draft codes being considered by the eSafety commissioner would bring similar age assurance measures to a wide range of services Australians use every day, including app stores, AI chatbots and messaging apps.<\/p>\n

Any service that hosts or facilitates access to content such as pornography, self-harm material, simulated gaming, or very violent material unsuitable for children will need to ensure children are not able to access that content.<\/p>\n

In her National Press Club speech last month, Inman Grant flagged that the codes were needed to keep children safe at every level of the online world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s critical to ensure the layered safety approach which also places responsibility and accountability at critical chokepoints in the tech stack, including the app stores and at the device level, the physical gateways to the internet where kids sign-up and first declare their ages,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The eSafety commissioner announced the intention of the codes<\/a> during the development process and when they were submitted<\/a>, but recent media reporting has drawn renewed attention to these aspects of the codes.<\/p>\n

Some people will welcome the changes. News this week that Elon Musk\u2019s AI Grok now includes a pornographic chat<\/a> while still being labelled suitable for ages 12+ on the Apple app store prompted child safety groups to call for Apple to review the app\u2019s rating and implement child protection measures in the app store.<\/p>\n

Apple and Google are already developing age checks<\/a> at the device level that can also be used by apps to check the age of their users.<\/p>\n

\"AppApp stores have ‘huge disincentive’ to remove pornography due to profits says eSafety boss \u2013 video<\/p>\n

Founder of tech analysis company PivotNine, Justin Warren, says the codes would \u201cimplement sweeping changes to the regulation of communication between people in Australia\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like a massive over-reaction after years of policy inaction to curtail the power of a handful of large foreign technology companies,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat it hands even more power and control over Australians\u2019 online lives to those same foreign tech companies is darkly hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the industry bodies that worked with the eSafety commissioner to develop the codes, Digi, rejected the notion they would reduce anonymity online, and said the codes targeted specific platforms hosting or providing access to specific kinds of content.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe codes introduce targeted and proportionate safeguards concerning access to pornography and material rated as unsuitable for minors under 18, such as very violent materials or those advocating or [giving instructions for] suicide, eating disorders or self-harm,\u201d Digi\u2019s director of digital policy Dr Jenny Duxbury says.<\/p>\n

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Search engines are one of the main gateways available to children for much of the harmful material they may encounterOffice of the eSafety Commissioner<\/p>\n

\u201cThese codes introduce safeguards for specific use cases, not a blanket requirement for identity verification across the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duxbury says companies may use inference measures \u2013 such as account history or device usage patterns \u2013 to estimate a user\u2019s age, which would mean most users may not have to go through an assurance process.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome services may choose to adopt inference methods because they can be effective and less intrusive.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, those that do may be caught by surprise when it comes into effect, says Electronic Frontiers Australia chair John Pane.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile most Australians seem to be aware about the discussion about social media, the average punter is blissfully unaware about what\u2019s happening with search engines, and particularly if they go to seek access to adult content or other content that is captured by one of the safety codes, and then having to authenticate that they\u2019re over the age of 18 in order to access that content, the people will not be happy, rightly so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Companies that don\u2019t comply with the codes will face a fine similar to that of the social media ban \u2013 up to $49.5m for a breach. Other measures such as eSafety requesting sites be delisted from search results are also an option for non-compliance.<\/p>\n

Pane says it would be better if the federal government made changes to the privacy act and introduced AI regulation that would require businesses to do risk assessment and ban certain AI activities deemed an unacceptable risk.<\/p>\n

He says a duty of care for the platforms for all users accessing digital services should be legislated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe this approach, through the legislature, is far more preferable than using regulatory fiat through a regulatory agency,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Warren is sceptical the age assurance technology will work, highlighting that the search engine code was brought in before the outcome of the age assurance technology trial<\/a>, due to government this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually, the theory will come into contact with practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

After recent media reporting about the codes, the eSafety commissioner\u2019s office this week defended including age assurance requirements for searches.<\/p>\n

\u201cSearch engines are one of the main gateways available to children for much of the harmful material they may encounter, so the code for this sector is an opportunity to provide very important safeguards,\u201d the office said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the old adage goes, \u201cOn the internet, nobody knows you\u2019re a dog\u201d. But in Australia it might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[85,123,46,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-3984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-internet","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}