logo
Face age and ID checks? Using the internet in Australia is about to fundamentally change

Face age and ID checks? Using the internet in Australia is about to fundamentally change

The Guardian20-07-2025
As the old adage goes, 'On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog'. 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.
The Albanese government trumpeted the passage of its legislation banning under 16s from social media – which will come into effect in December – 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.
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.
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.
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.
Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email
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.
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.
'It's 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,' she said.
The eSafety commissioner announced the intention of the codes during the development process and when they were submitted, but recent media reporting has drawn renewed attention to these aspects of the codes.
Some people will welcome the changes. News this week that Elon Musk's AI Grok now includes a pornographic chat 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's rating and implement child protection measures in the app store.
Apple and Google are already developing age checks at the device level that can also be used by apps to check the age of their users.
Founder of tech analysis company PivotNine, Justin Warren, says the codes would 'implement sweeping changes to the regulation of communication between people in Australia'.
'It looks like a massive over-reaction after years of policy inaction to curtail the power of a handful of large foreign technology companies,' he says.
'That it hands even more power and control over Australians' online lives to those same foreign tech companies is darkly hilarious.'
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.
'The 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,' Digi's director of digital policy Dr Jenny Duxbury says.
Sign up to Breaking News Australia
Get the most important news as it breaks
after newsletter promotion
'These codes introduce safeguards for specific use cases, not a blanket requirement for identity verification across the internet.'
Duxbury says companies may use inference measures – such as account history or device usage patterns – to estimate a user's age, which would mean most users may not have to go through an assurance process.
'Some services may choose to adopt inference methods because they can be effective and less intrusive.'
However, those that do may be caught by surprise when it comes into effect, says Electronic Frontiers Australia chair John Pane.
'While most Australians seem to be aware about the discussion about social media, the average punter is blissfully unaware about what's 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're over the age of 18 in order to access that content, the people will not be happy, rightly so.'
Companies that don't comply with the codes will face a fine similar to that of the social media ban – 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.
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.
He says a duty of care for the platforms for all users accessing digital services should be legislated.
'We believe this approach, through the legislature, is far more preferable than using regulatory fiat through a regulatory agency,' he said.
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, due to government this month.
'Eventually, the theory will come into contact with practise.'
After recent media reporting about the codes, the eSafety commissioner's office this week defended including age assurance requirements for searches.
'Search 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,' the office said.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

YouTube to gauge US users' ages with AI after UK and Australia add age checks
YouTube to gauge US users' ages with AI after UK and Australia add age checks

The Guardian

time3 hours ago

  • The Guardian

YouTube to gauge US users' ages with AI after UK and Australia add age checks

YouTube announced on Tuesday that it will begin to use artificial intelligence to estimate the ages of users in the US, in order to show them age-appropriate content. The rollout of the new feature comes one day after Australia's government announced it would ban children under 16 from using YouTube and less than a week after the UK implemented sweeping age checks on content on social networks. YouTube's AI age verification on its home turf indicates it is putting into place a form of compliance with the Australian and UK requirements, despite its persistent opposition to age-check requirements. 'Over the next few weeks, we'll begin to roll out machine learning to a small set of users in the US to estimate their age, so that teens are treated as teens and adults as adults,' wrote James Beser, director of product management for YouTube Youth, in a blog post titled Extending our built-in protections to more teens on YouTube. YouTube was promised an exemption from Australia's social media ban last year by the then communications minister, but the Australian government said on Monday that the platform would, in fact, be included in the country's ban on children under 16 using social networks. The ban is slated to take effect in December. Google, YouTube's parent company, strenuously advocated against the Australian ban and has threatened to sue to overturn it. On 25 July, the UK's long-awaited Online Safety Act took effect. The law requires social media and other internet platforms to implement safety measures protecting children – preventing them from accessing pornography or content that promotes dangerous behavior – or face large fines. Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives after newsletter promotion By testing the new AI tool in the US – the platform's second largest market after India – YouTube is following the example of other tech companies, which have in some cases followed tightened privacy regulations in the past by implementing stricter mandates for all their users. In the US, California often functions as a de facto tech regulator, both by virtue of playing host to many of Silicon Valley's biggest players and by passing stricter regulations than other states. Like Australia and the UK, some states in the US have passed age verification laws targeting social media sites, though these have not been interpreted as applying to YouTube. When YouTube determines a user is teen or pre-teen, the site will disable personalized advertising, activate digital wellbeing features and put stricter content filters as well as behavioral restrictions into place. YouTube's AI will assess a user's age via multiple behavioral factors, including what kind of videos the user searches for, the categories of videos they watch, and how long the account has been active, per its blog post. 'This technology will allow us to infer a user's age and then use that signal, regardless of the birthday in the account, to deliver our age-appropriate product experiences and protections,' Beser wrote, adding that the company has used the technology in other markets prior to introducing it in the US. If the AI's estimation is incorrect, YouTube says it will allow a user to verify their age with a credit card, a government ID or a selfie. How the Australian government will ensure that under-16s stay away from the world's largest video site, one of the internet's primary destinations for both children and adults, remains an open question. In June, a test of the technology meant to estimate Australian users' ages was 'not guaranteed to be effective'.

UK online safety law leads to 5m extra age checks a day and surge in VPN use
UK online safety law leads to 5m extra age checks a day and surge in VPN use

The Guardian

time5 hours ago

  • The Guardian

UK online safety law leads to 5m extra age checks a day and surge in VPN use

Five million extra online age checks a day are being carried out in the UK since the introduction of age-gating for pornography sites, according to new data. The Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) said there had been a sharp increase in additional age checks in the UK since Friday, when age verification became mandatory for accessing pornography under the Online Safety Act. 'As a result of new codes under the Online Safety Act coming into force on Friday, we have seen an additional 5m age checks on a daily basis, as UK-based internet users seek to access sites that are age-restricted,' said Iain Corby, the executive director of the AVPA. The UK has also seen a surge in popularity of virtual private networks, which obscure a user's real location and thus allow them to access sites blocked in their own country. Four of the top five free apps on the Apple download store in the UK are VPN apps, with Proton, the most popular, reporting a 1,800% increase in downloads. Last week the UK's communications regulator and enforcer of the act, Ofcom, indicated that it could start formal investigations into inadequate age checking this week. Ofcom said it would be actively checking compliance with age-checking requirements and if necessary would launch investigations into individual services. The AVPA, the trade association for age-verification companies in Britain, surveyed members who were carrying out checks for UK pornography providers. These providers were required to introduce 'highly effective' age verification on 25 July. The age-checking companies were asked to submit 'the volume of checks you carried out today for highly effective age assurance'. The AVPA said it could not offer a baseline comparison but effective age assurance was new to dedicated pornography sites in the UK. Previously, many porn sites in the UK only required users to tick a box to verify their age. An Ofcom spokesperson said: 'Until now, kids could easily stumble across porn and other online content that's harmful to them without even looking for it. Age checks will help prevent that. We're now assessing compliance to make sure platforms have them in place, and companies that fall short should expect to face enforcement action.' Ofcom has said service providers should not encourage users to deploy VPNs in order to circumvent age controls. Punishments for breaching the Online Safety Act, including for inadequate age-checking procedures, range from 10% of worldwide revenue to blocking access to the site or app in extreme cases. Age-assurance methods supported by Ofcom and offered by AVPA members include facial age estimation, where technology assesses a person's likely age through a live photo or video; checking a person's age via their credit card provider, bank or mobile phone network operator; photo ID matching, where a passport or similar ID is checked against a selfie; or a 'digital identity wallet' that contains proof of age. Major pornography providers including Pornhub, the UK's most popular pornography site, have pledged to implement the strict age checks required under the act. The act also requires sites and apps to shield children from other forms of harmful material, particularly content that encourages suicide, self-harm and eating disorders. It requires tech platforms to suppress the spread of content that is abusive or incites hatred against people with protected characteristics under the Equality Act such as age, race and sex. Free speech campaigners have said the child-harm content restrictions have led to material on X being age-gated unnecessarily, along with some forums on Reddit including one dedicated to tackling alcohol abuse. Reddit and X have been contacted for comment.

Take a deep dive into the inflation numbers and the RBA's decision not to cut rates seems inexplicable
Take a deep dive into the inflation numbers and the RBA's decision not to cut rates seems inexplicable

The Guardian

time6 hours ago

  • The Guardian

Take a deep dive into the inflation numbers and the RBA's decision not to cut rates seems inexplicable

The latest inflation figures confirm that the Reserve Bank wrongly kept interest rates steady at its meeting earlier this month as the official measure of inflation fell to 2.1%, while the monthly indicator dropped outside the RBA target band at 1.9%. The one thing you won't hear from the Reserve Bank after the release of the June quarter inflation figures is an apology. Because, to give credit to the RBA, in its May statement on monetary policy, it predicted inflation of 2.1%. That it did predict this inflation and yet still kept interest rates steady tells you something about how punishingly timid it has been. In June, not only was the official CPI at 2.1%, meaning it has now been below 3% for a year, but the core measure of inflation (the trimmed mean) fell from 2.9% to 2.7%: If the graph does not display click here Even more astonishing is that in a majority of capital cities, inflation is now below 2% – yep, below the Reserve Bank's target range: If the graph does not display click here And if you want even more confirmation of just how low inflation is at the moment, the monthly measure of inflation – which in November will take over as the official measure once a few more items are added – rose just 1.9%: If the graph does not display click here All of this is very good news for those who were struggling with rising prices in 2022 and 2023. Sign up: AU Breaking News email It is less good news for the opposition. The shadow treasurer, Ted O'Brien took to the parliament on Monday and told the treasurer that 'inflation remains too high'. If that is the case then we need to change the English language as well as economics to redefine 'high'. Even when you compare our core inflation with those in other major economies, Australia is doing well. If the graph does not display click here Core inflation is the measure that the RBA mainly focuses on because it gives a less erratic view of what is happening. What it does is top and tail (or 'trim') the 15% biggest price rises and falls. This time around, that means, for example, the trimmed inflation measure does not include fuel or lamb prices which fell the most, and at the other end of the scale it mostly ignores the jump in secondary education cost and also electricity prices which jumped 8.1% this quarter. The reason electricity jumped was the end of state-based subsidies – especially in Western Australia and Queensland. If the graph does not display click here The Bureau of Statistics notes that without these subsidies electricity prices across Australia would have risen just 0.4% in the June quarter. But even still, electricity costs on average 14% less than it would without the subsidies. So you can bet the government will be very happy it extended its scheme: If the graph does not display click here That the RBA did not cut rates earlier this month is even more inexplicable when you dig deeper into the figures. The RBA always looks at the price increase of services rather than goods, because services are more closely linked with wages (because you need workers to do the services). In the year to June service prices rose just 3.3% – that is back at the level they rose in 2011 to 2014 – a period when the RBA cut interest rates eight times: If the graph does not display click here And the level of inflation is also very broad. The prices of about two-thirds of all items counted in the CPI basket rose less than 3% – that's a very solid level: If the graph does not display click here This of course does not mean all things are hunky dory and life is a sweet basket of chocolates and strawberries. Pleasingly the prices of non-discretionary items – those things we have to buy, such as food, petrol or insurance – are now rising the slowest, but there is still a lot of catching up to do after the past four years. Since June 2022, which was about the same time the RBA began lifting rates, wages have risen 14% – well behind the 22% increase in the price of those necessities. That makes for a lot of people still feeling worse off than they were then: If the graph does not display click here But overall, the story is very good. Inflation should no longer be such a concern that the RBA holds off on cutting rates until it gets more information. But unemployment is now rising above 4%; when you combine that with inflation falling close to 2% that equals an interest cut. And even though they won't, when they do cut in August, the RBA also should apologise for making everyone wait six weeks longer than they needed to. Greg Jericho is a Guardian columnist and policy director at the Centre for Future Work

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store