The eSafety Commission’s head of policy,Kelly Tallon,said last month that Rowland’s decision prompted a “public reaction”.
“We did hear from not only people across government but sections of children’s advocacy and others that they were concerned and wanted to see a pilot move forward,” she said in a speech at a UK conference seen by this masthead.
Tallon said there had since been an “evolution of the messaging” from Rowland who had seemingly become more positive about a trial.
Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman said Wednesday’s announcement was a “massive backflip” by the government,“but a very welcome one”.
“The commissioner’s recommendation,and the pleas of children’s and women’s safety advocates,are finally being acted on. In the future,age verification will be the linchpin in protecting children online,” Coleman said.
A number of different technologies can be used to determine people’s age online. The governments of France,Germany,the UK and some US states are all considering forms of age verification.
Apps that can scan a person’s face and guess their age are offered by some companies. Other systems ask a person to submit images of their ID.
The eSafety Commissioner recommended a system that used an electronic token granted by a trusted private provider,subject to government regulation,once a person’s age is proven.
In its research,the commissioner found a large proportion of young people accessed porn on social media sites rather than porn-specific sites,raising questions about the efficacy of porn-only age restrictions.
“Most research participants aged 16-18 thought there were negative (negative or very negative) effects of online pornography on young people’s understanding and expectations of consent (74 per cent),sex (76 per cent),relationships (76 per cent),and gender (64 per cent),” the watchdog’s report said.
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“While the research is complex,and in some cases,conflicting,the main harm which emerges is an association between mainstream pornography and attitudes and behaviours which can contribute to gender-based violence.”
Digital Rights Watch’s head of policy Samantha Floreani,a privacy advocate,cautioned against overzealous digital regulation,saying:“We simply cannot content-moderate and age-verify our way out of systemic misogyny and violence”.
“Online harms warrant careful policy intervention,but many of the proposals put forward today are riddled with assumptions,underdeveloped thinking,and seem cobbled together in response to the current political moment,” Floreani said.
“It was less than a year ago that the government determined that age assurance technology is not sufficiently mature and comes with too many significant privacy and security risks to move forward with the trial. Nothing about the maturity or risk has changed,so it is disappointing to see the government change its position on this.”
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Matt Berriman,a former Mental Health Australia chiefwho quit last week over perceived government inaction on mental health funding,said an age restriction for social media was needed.
“In general this government has been slow to rein in tech companies,” he said,adding that the government’s approach to tackling online dangers was reminiscent of its inertia on mental health reform that,in part,prompted his departure.
Support is available from theNational Sexual Assault,Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).