Online child blocking tech ‘OK’

Age verification platforms have declared they are ready to roll out technology that would stop children gaining access to inappropriate material online.

Labor has stood firm against calls from the Coalition and women’s safety advocates to immediately trial age verification technology. Picture: Istock

Age verification platforms have declared they are ready to roll out technology to stop children gaining access to inappropriate material online, rebuffing Labor’s claim that the technology is too “immature” to mandate its introduction on pornography and gambling sites.

Labor has stood firm against calls from the Coalition and women’s safety advocates to immediately trial age verification technology as recommended by the eSafety Commissioner, and said it would wait until industry codes were developed before turning to such regulation.

“The ability and the efficacy of the systems that currently exist for age verification are immature and also carry significant risks in terms of privacy and their ability to be implemented overall,” Communications Minister Michelle Rowland told the National Press Club.

But age verification platforms slammed the decision not to regulate, arguing identity verification technologies were already being used widely.

A spokesman for IDVerse, the leading age verification platform in Australia, said its technology was used by major banks and could easily be used on pornography and gambling sites to check if a person was over 18. “It’s not right to say the technology is immature … and regulation is critical,” head of legal and compliance Peter Violaris said.

The Age Verification Providers Association, a global not-for-profit peak body representing 26 companies providing age assurance, said other countries had implemented regulation, and urged Australia to at least launch a trial of the technology.

“Our members offer a wide variety of independently tested and certified, privacy-preserving methods of checking the age of users online, which the UK, French, German, Indian and multiple US state governments have legislated to require,” AVPA CEO Ian Corby said.

“Our members have done over a billion age checks for everything from buying wine to placing bets or giving consent to share personal data under Europe’s strict data protection regime … We hope a cross-party consensus will now emerge that protecting kids online first requires knowing which of the internet’s users are children. Industry codes will inevitably have to include age assurance, so a trial is an obvious first step.”

European age verification platform Veriff said concerns about people’s privacy when verifying their identity before they entered a pornography or gambling site were front of mind.

“All age verification providers including Veriff are in the business of trust … Veriff is committed to ensure highest privacy and information security standards to safeguard our customers. If we lose the trust of our customers, we have no more business,” Veriff’s Indrek Heinloo said.

Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman said age verification had “been used for some time internationally” and Labor needed to follow suit.

“This technology is the key to actually enforcing tough rules against platforms who distribute dangerous online content to children,” he said.