CANBERRA, Australia—Australia's digital regulator informed the country's bicameral Australian Parliament that it will investigate the use of widely available virtual private networks (VPNs) to circumvent national age verification requirements for pornography websites, The Guardian reported over the weekend.
According to budget documents submitted to the Australian Senate in May, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant's office is concerned that online platforms regulated under a set of tech industry codes of conduct are still receiving non-age-verified web traffic from IP addresses based in the country's digital space.
"Under the codes, there are requirements that service providers must take reasonable steps to prevent workarounds like VPNs so eSafety will look at this when considering compliance with codes," reads language in the budget documents, which contain an appropriations proposal for Grant's office.
This concern from the eSafety Commissioner stems from the fact that internet search engine trends for Australia in March showed a surge in "VPN" and "virtual private network" terms by users. Such spikes coincide with Australian authorities officially implementing age verification for age-restricted platforms and banning social media for minors.
AVN reported at the time of the ban on social media for minors under the age of 16 that such policy changes impacted much of the visible internet in the country. Notably, Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub.com, announced around the same time that all of its platforms will be restricted in the Australian jurisdiction to comply with new laws.
Australian industry codes require the parent companies of online pornography providers to introduce and enforce "appropriate age assurance measures." These include interventions such as identity checks, credit card verification, biometric age estimation augmented by artificial intelligence and other solutions, as AVN previously reported.
However, VPNs have proven to be an effective circumvention measure around content blocks and age verification laws around the world, including in Australia and the United States.
Due to this, Grant's office informed members of the Australian Senate that it is actively working on a means to curtail VPN traffic that is otherwise unverified.
"This is similar to eSafety’s regulatory guidance for the social media minimum age, where eSafety considers VPN detection as a reasonable step to prevent underage users from having an account," note the documents submitted to the Senate by Grant's office.
"[The] Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport, and the Arts knows that tech companies can tell when a VPN is in use."
