The unintended consequence of the age verification proposal for porn sites

Journalists, commentators and politicians are linking the current and important issue of violence against women to online pornography. This is part of a long term trend of blaming sex workers for the attitudes and behaviours of men towards women. Last year strip clubs were to blame, this year it's porn.

The fact is that porn pays the bills of many Australian sex workers; that's right, your next door neighbour and that mum doing the morning drop-off. Watching porn is also common, and while some people argue that "times have changed" and porn is now more extreme and violent, the stats and sex workers making porn disagree. Popular porn is not violent and not even particularly unusual.

Then there's the children. In order to "protect our kids" from "harmful content like pornopgraphy" the federal government has announced $6.5 million to pilot age assurance technologies (like age verification, where you have to give your legal ID in order to access porn). This has been celebrated by the opposition and the anti-porn brigade, but we know, and back in August 2023 this same government agreed, that the technology just doesn't work: it's easily circumvented and there's massive privacy implications.

So, you may ask, why care about age verification getting in the way of people viewing sex on screen?

These laws tend to capture more content than intended. You imagine it's stopping 10 year olds from watching porn, when actually it's blocking sex workers from our advertising sites, and preventing 15 year olds in rural Australia from accessing age-appropriate sex education.

The laws funnel viewers towards free, non-compliant overseas sites that steal the paid content of sex workers. Meaning sex workers don't get paid and all the ad revenue goes to the dodgy site that stole the clips.

The fact is that laws won't work. Tech savvy young people will continue to access explicit content regardless, including sharing it directly amongst each other, away from the prying eyes of the government and the eSafety Commissioner.

Perhaps the worst part is that we've been here before, time and time again.

In the 1990s it was the Time magazine "cyberporn" cover story that whipped up frenzy on research that showed the internet was awash with extreme pornographic imagery. It was completely debunked and the research discredited.

Fast forward and in the 2010s sex trafficking became the hot topic that led to the closure of Backpage and the Craigslist personals and adult services sections. These platforms were some of the easiest and best places for a sex worker to advertise as they were cheap, popular, and they worked. They were how I made 90 per cent of my money as a sex worker, and their closures pushed many sex workers into financial insecurity and accompanied mental distress.

Sex workers don't produce porn to educate children about sex. They should be getting that education in schools and at home; but if they have nowhere else to turn, implementing barriers to online content that can be easily circumvented is not the solution.

Comprehensive sex education should equip young people with knowledge and skills to navigate the digital landscape responsibly. Teaching critical thinking, consent, and healthy sexual relationships is a sustainable long term approach to safe and respectful behaviour.

Sensible legislation can address image-based abuse, child sexual abuse material, and other types of internet-facilitated abuse, without blanket bans, age verification, or removing sex workers from the internet.

Sex work is undeniably becoming more visible and accepted as work in the mainstream. States and territories have progressed towards decriminalisation; Northern Territory and Victoria both since 2020 and Queensland the latest. We all have a stake in keeping the internet safe for all and stopping violence against women.

Cancelling porn is not the answer.