Whether you agree that the government’s social media ban has worked or not, one thing is for sure: it has definitely attracted attention around the world.
It’s debatable on whether the social media ban has made a positive dent on teens, but the outcome isn’t over yet, and from this week, more ID checks have gone in place for services beyond Facebook and Insta and TikTok and the like.
While not technically connected with the Social Media Age Assurance regulation, there’s no doubt it will get confused, because ID checks are coming to more services from March onwards.
New rules from the government kick in this week (from March 9) as part of the Age Restricted Material Codes, a set of codes that essentially require service and website operators of material and content deemed adult and explicit to use ID checks.
In short, the honour system of simply saying you’re over the age of 18 is going away, with websites, apps, and services now required to check if an adult really is present, lest they want to face a huge fine.
That covers sexually explicit sites, and has seen several operators cut off access to Australia immediately, but it’s not just explicit material. AI services may also see the ID checks used, as might app stores and search engines. The result essentially means social media isn’t the only place where an age verification will take place, as the government expands access to gaming providers, chatbots, app stores, and search engines, as well as other more obviously adult websites.
And that means that while the under 16s social media age ban didn’t likely affect adults, these changes now likely will affect anyone over the age of 16, with some form of identity verification now likely needed, or even services cut off.
The aim isn’t to block adults from using services, but rather to prevent under 16s from accessing them, though it does mean some changes for adults, as well.
“Industry must now apply consistent standards across their services so children are not accidentally exposed when they search or scroll online,” said Julie Inman Grant, eSafety Commissioner.
“These industry-developed codes shift that responsibility back where it belongs – onto the companies designing these digital platforms and profiting from their users – and will give children back a little more of their childhoods,” she said.
From an adult’s perspective, it means that some services and sites may simply deny access to Australians without an account already, while others may simply shut off access to Australians altogether.
And for many others, it may mean identity checks start to roll out for a variety of places, using either actual ID checks, bank and credit checks, or guesstimation based on prior use of the service to work out an age.
Even search will be affected, with blurred results of anything potentially not safe for work (or kids), while logged-in users will be able to unblur the results.
