The below media release was written by EFA chair John Pane.
Electronic Frontiers Australia is once again disappointed that fundamental privacy and security principles will be compromised for a quick fix to complex social and policy issues.
“’Harmful content’ is a subjective and ultimately very political catch-all which we know has been weaponised against marginalised groups,” said EFA Chair, John Pane.
EFA has been consistent in our opposition to both online age verification and to the increasing powers that the eSafety Commissioner continues to seek without transparency, oversight, disclosure of technical detail, or a disciplined and thoughtful examination of the consequences for our society.
EFA is especially concerned that while this latest move is presented as a control on access to pornography by minors, the scope and range of material that will be covered is still unspecified, and the age gating mechanism to be used is also undecided. The same people who shut down Safe Schools are pushing hardest for this, and “harmful content” under their definition can be lifesaving — it is not clearcut.
While a causal link between pornography and violence has not been established, we absolutely do know that website security measures that can be bypassed with a simple VPN, and that create an identity theft honeypot are not a good idea. Australian teachers have identified so-called ‘manosphere’ figures like Andrew Tate as a negative influence on their male students, but placing age restrictions on access to certain influencer content across all platforms would be both a clear privacy violation for all online content consumers. This is also another overreach by the government into the parenting choices of Australians.
“Age verification is a difficult technical problem, and there is no real information on cost or transparency on the technical approach to be used.,” said John Pane. “Low-end estimates for the cost of age verification from hearings in California point to it being exorbitant, well exceeding revenue even for sizable platforms like Reddit. That this would put smaller operations out of business is likely a feature not a bug for those pushing the policy.”
Australia has a poor track record of adopting hasty technical solutions, like attempting to undermine encryption, which then undermines global digital security as other opportunistic governments seek to piggyback off our quick fixes. Those enthusiastically eyeing Australia’s embrace of this approach for the optics should look instead to the UK and Texas for the outcome.
Pissed off about porn passports? Phone the PM… and then join Electronic Frontiers Australia, and help us put a stop to policy overreach.
(Image credit: Unsplash)