CANBERRA, Australia - In an effort to stop children from viewing unsuitable material on the Internet, the Australian Communications and Media Authority will enact new laws on January 20 to place restrictions on chat rooms, websites and mobile-phone content.
The new laws will impose tougher rules for companies that sell entertainment-related content on subscription websites and mobile phones. Providers of live services such as chat rooms also will be required to have their services professionally assessed to determine whether their "likely content" should be restricted.
Content providers will be required to check that people accessing content rated MA15-plus are at least 15 years old and those accessing content rated R18-plus and X18-plus are at least 18.
The new laws will enable the ACMA to force content providers to remove offensive material, stop live content and delete links to the content.
ACMA Chairman Chris Chapman said adults will not be affected by the new laws.
"In developing these new content rules, ACMA was guided by its disposition to allow adults to continue to read, hear and see what they want, while protecting children from exposure to inappropriate content, regardless of the delivery mechanism," he said.
Personal email and other private communications are excluded from the new laws.
