Protecting Children Online in Australia: A Practical Plan
An Australian View: If You Cannot Prove You Are an Adult, You Should Not Access Adult Content By Anthony Hamilton I grew up in an Australia where some rules were straightforward. You could not drive legally without a licence. You could not walk into a pub, order alcohol and expect the publican to accept your word that you were old enough. If there was doubt, you produced identification. If you could not prove your age, you did not get access. It was not a perfect system, but everybody understood the principle. Adult activities carried adult responsibilities, and the person supplying the restricted product had a duty to check. That is why I find Australia’s present debate about children, mobile phones, social media and online pornography so frustrating. We have turned a basic principle into a complicated argument involving governments, regulators, overseas technology companies, algorithms and different forms of age estimation. To me, the starting point remains simple: if you cannot reli...