Australian Government to Follow Failed UK Plan to Age Verify Porn
An Anonymous Coward writes:
The Australian government is investigating implementing age verification to access porn online following a failed UK age verification scheme. Children's charity eChildhood claims that "a third of students aged eight and under attempted to access online pornography in the past six months" including through advertising popups. No mention has been made about how effective the Australian plan will be and what exact measures may be taken to block access online.
The UK proposed making users visiting porn sites prove they were 18. The government abandoned the plan in October after a series of major technical issues.
The Australian report said three "crucial factors" needed to be sorted out to succeed where the UK scheme failed.
These included ensuring a level playing field for regulation, making age verification easy for consumers to use and raising public awareness of the need for age verification.
[...]Advocacy group Collective Shout said UK research found 28 per cent [of] children aged 11 to 12 had seen pornography online. In the 15 to 16 age group, the number jumped to 65 per cent.
The Internet routes around damage.
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