Despite the farcical attempt by the United Kingdom to put in place an “age-verification” law blocking online porn sites—a law that was never implemented and finally cancelled after three years and the equivalent of $2.5 million—Australia is now trying to do the same thing.
On Thursday, a parliamentary committee issued a report calling for a “roadmap” toward the goal of blocking all porn sites to anyone under 18, sometime within the next 12 months, according to The Guardian newspaper.
According to the Guardian summary of the report, Australia hopes to avoid some of the problems that plagued the U.K. effort by verifying ages though “an exchange hosted by the government” rather than through technology implemented by individual sites, as would have been required in the British system.
Andrew Wallace, chair of the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, which issued the report titled “Protecting the Age of Innocence,” admitted that many users would find ways around the age verification system, and that it would likely miss porn that appears on social media sites such as Twitter, and in Google search results.
“We must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” Wallace said.
The report acknowledged that three “crucial factors” would need to be addressed to avoid the failures of the U.K. attempt at putting an age verification system in place.
Those factors, according to the report, are “ensuring there is a level playing field in terms of regulation; ensuring age verification is both robust and easy for consumers to use; and raising public awareness of age verification, so that consumers understand that age verification is a child protection measure and so that they trust and understand how to use age-verification systems in place.”
The report also acknowledged that Australians who might want to watch porn online may feel uncomfortable giving their personal information to the government. But no worries—the committee’s report recommended that there will be only a minimal amount of data retained, and that “it must be stored in a secure way.”
Photo by Owen65 / Wikimedia Commons
