Australia should introduce a system of compulsory age checks before people can access online pornography, including on social media sites, a parliamentary inquiry has recommended.
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The Coalition-dominated committee recommended the government set the ground rules for age verification and establish an "age-verification exchange" so people can verify their age using online systems, including the government's new digital identity, before accessing pornographic websites.
It would be up to site users to choose which of the approved systems they used, the committee said, describing it as a "competitive ecosystem for third-party age verification". Verifying their age using a third party would means people didn't have to give personal or secure details to pornography sites.
The committee said at a minimum, all age-verification methods should protect privacy so that no personal information is shared between the age-verification provider and the website, minimise the retention of personal information so as not to create a "honeypot" of sensitive data, and require secure storage of data.
The inquiry heard 69 per cent of males and 23 per cent of females had viewed pornography at 13 or younger. Most parents had no idea about the nature of readily available pornography, which could be very violent and very confronting, the eSafety Commissioner had found.
The Australian Institute of Family Studies had found that watching pornography was linked to condoning violence against women and sexist views, as well as sexually coercive behaviour by young men. It had also contributed to sexting, and was connected to mental health issues, lower academic performance and body image problems, including young women seeking surgery to trim their labia.
"Evidence given to the inquiry showed very clearly that there is widespread and genuine concern among the community about the negative impact of online pornography on the welfare of children and young people," the committee's report, tabled on Thursday, found.
While age verification was not a silver bullet, with some young people likely to find ways to circumvent the system and some websites not captured, it would create a significant barrier for children and help prevent them from stumbling across pornographic material online.
"When it comes to protecting children from the very real harms associated with exposure to online pornography, the committee's strong view is that we should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good," the report said.
The inquiry with five Coalition members and three Labor members, was chaired by Liberal MP Andrew Wallace and received hundreds of submissions, many from parents, advocacy groups and people working with children, pleading for action.
The Labor MPs said age restrictions should not be imposed without more work and research and a "road map" that would take some time.
"Without adequate review and research, any new system may fail to win public trust and support and increase risks and unintended consequences around data security, trust, privacy and freedom of expression," they said.
The government's Digital Transformation Agency is already working on a new online identity checking system for people to access government services and private firms such as banks online. That digital ID is one option for people to verifying their age for pornographic websites.
The agency told the inquiry that third-party age verification involved the restricted website only receiving a yes/no answer about whether the user was 18 or older, similar to the two-factor authentication code used by online shopping sites.
The inquiry heard about other ways to check people's ages, such as estimating age based on photos, or requiring people to take a live photo which could be validated against an identity document. The Department of Home Affairs is developing a face verification service, which could be used.
Whatever restrictions were put in pace should cover social media and search engines, as well as other online services and websites.
Kirsten Lawson
It's about the truth for me. That means asking questions. Then asking more questions. On the best days, we get answers.
It's about the truth for me. That means asking questions. Then asking more questions. On the best days, we get answers.
