Australia expands age verification checks from social media to porn and explicit video games – UK Times

Australians would now have to verify their ages to access explicit video games and “adult” websites starting Monday, months after the country became the world’s first to ban social media platforms for those under 16.

Under Australia’s new rules on age-restricted materials, search engines, social media platforms, app stores, gaming providers, and generative AI systems must take “meaningful steps” to prevent children from being exposed to age-inappropriate content.

The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring ⁠websites which disseminate pornography to verify users are over 18. App stores must also run age checks before ​allowing downloads of software labelled 18+.

The new rules are aimed at preventing children’s exposure to online content that includes violence, self-harm material, and dangerous content such as suicide and disordered eating.

Australia’s new rule comes just 13 weeks after it enacted one of the world’s toughest digital restrictions, banning access to the largest social networks, including TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X/Twitter for its under-16s or face fines of up to A$49.5m (£26.5m).

“Users will have to complete some form of age assurance to access online games classified R18+ by the Australian Classification Board,” Australia’s eSafety Commissioner (eSafety) said in a statement.

“For all other games, no age checks are required,” the national independent regulator of online safety said.

The online mode of popular games such as Grand Theft Auto V are likely to become inaccessible to children under 16, according to the new rule.

“We don’t allow children to walk into bars or bottle shops, adult stores or casinos, but when it comes to online spaces where they are spending a lot of their time, there are no such safeguards,” eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said.

“That changes for Australian kids with these codes which simply bring those same, common sense protections we all grew up with to the online world of today,” Ms Grant said.

Canada-based Aylo, ​owner of a large network ​of pornography websites, meanwhile ⁠blocked Australians from accessing the platforms RedTube and YouPorn, while presenting a version of Pornhub without explicit content.All the websites carried a banner saying it was “not currently accepting ​new account registrations in your region”.

Experts have raised concerns about the new age-verification mandate impacting children’s online privacy.

“While the government is framing this next wave of verification as a necessary step to protect children, there is an increasingly worrying situation for our privacy and safety more broadly,” said Joanne Orlando, an associate professor of digital wellbeing at Western Sydney University.

“Mandating government ID or face scans not only on social media platforms, but also now on extreme adult content sites creates a worrying smorgasbord of who has access to our sensitive data,” Dr Orlando said.

Some experts also expressed worry that the move could backfire and push children more towards forbidden online content.

“Young people are always going to find ways around age gating to play games they want to play, and making more adult games seem forbidden is likely to both encourage young people towards them rather than the opposite, and make it harder to talk to parents or carers about their gaming,” said Mark Johnson, a senior lecturer in digital cultures at the University of Sydney.

“Any age verification of this sort also has serious questions about the safety of user data, which is already being captured more and more by many blockbuster and mobile games,” Dr Johnson said.

The Independent has reached out to Rockstar Games, the developer of GTA V, for comments.

While experts agree largely that cutting young people’s exposure to harmful online content can be fruitful, many worry Australian teens might just find workarounds like virtual private networks (VPNs) rather than identifying themselves.

Already, there appears to be a sudden surge in VPN use in Australia, with the number of downloads of such apps among Australian phone users skyrocketing in the past week.

The VPN app Super Unlimited Proxy moved from 40th among free iPhone apps in Australia on 2 March to 7th as of Sunday.

Popular apps like Nord VPN and Proton VPN also saw a sudden surge in downloads, according to Sensor Tower, a firm that offers data and insights into app store performance.