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Australia The Internet

Australian House Committee To Look Into Age Verification For Porn (zdnet.com) 62

Posted by BeauHD from the culture-war dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Australia is once again deciding to follow in the tracks of the United Kingdom, with the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs to look into age verification for online pornography and online wagering. The matter was referred to the committee by the Minister for Families and Social Services, Senator Anne Ruston and Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety, and the Arts, Paul Fletcher. The terms of reference for the inquiry state that it will be looking into age verification under the auspices of protecting children online.

The committee will look into "the potential benefits of further online age verification requirements, including to protect children from potential harm, and business and non-government organizations from reputation, operational and legal risks," the terms state. Potential risks and unintended consequences for age verification will be looked into as well, the terms state, including privacy breaches, freedom of expression, false assurance, and whether adults are pushing into "unregulated/illegal environments or to other legal forms of these activities." The committee will also examine the economic impact of age verification, and the impact on "eSafety resourcing, education, and messaging." The UK's age verification system for online pornography became mandatory on July 15.
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Australian House Committee To Look Into Age Verification For Porn More

Australian House Committee To Look Into Age Verification For Porn

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  • Maybe just have better sex ed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dixie_Flatline ( 5077 ) <vincent.jan.gohNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday September 11, 2019 @05:09PM (#59182676) Homepage

    Teach kids about porn, consent, what's real and what's fantasy. You'll never keep them all the way away from porn, the best thing you can do is give them the understanding to parse what they're seeing.

  • Embarrassing ... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by angel'o'sphere ( 80593 ) <angelo,schneider&oomentor,de> on Wednesday September 11, 2019 @05:20PM (#59182734) Journal

    Must be embarrassing to ask your father or older brother to make you an account on a porn site ... wait ... are not most porn sites without account usable?

    • Because kids never lie about their age or any other personal verifiable information! /s

    • Must be embarrassing to ask your father or older brother to make you an account on a porn site

      How about asking your mom? What would be worse, asking her to make you an account on a porn site or finding out she's already got her own channel there?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      They have been trying to introduce this in the UK for years. The plan is apparently to block porn sites that don't implement age verification.

      Of course the banks were not keen on using credit cards for age verification because it would obviously lead to a massive amount of fraud. The government has come up with a scheme where you can buy some kind of ID to use. Apparently it will be sold in shops.

      Obviously that's terrible, the last thing you want to do is give porn sites a way to perfectly track your viewin

      • Yep, it's been such a failure in the UK that of course the Morrison government is going to try to replicate it.

        With all the browsers starting to integrate VPNs it's rather pointless too.

        But this is the bollocks you get when conservatives are elected

  • commentsubject (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Falos ( 2905315 )

    Probably a combination of theater and ignorance. It's not easy to match the collective force of a million hormone'd teenagers. As if the "magic" solutions will be particularly solid. So political acts meant for optics more than results, posturing for pacification or prestige, whatever.

    I just don't have the energy to ridicule what we've already laughed at before.

    • ...political acts meant for optics more than results...

      Yup. I heard a former Prime Minister of my country describe it as:
      "Something needs to be done"
      "Look! Here we are, doing something"
      Problem solved.
      Don't worry too much about Australians, they will be able to continue to view porn if they want to, just like the good folk of the UK still can, without "verifying" anything.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by vlad30 ( 44644 )
        Yes they blocked the piratebay in Australia and no one can access that ;-)

      • Variations of the quote have been circulating for a long time. I believe it originated from a British comedy, "Yes, Minister."

        Something must be done.
        This is something.
        Therefore this must be done.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Falos ( 2905315 )

        Prime Minister, what is your office doing about Thing?

        If we're going to pass fucked up laws, let's finally make it illegal for journalism to ever squawk with WHAT IS X DOING ABOUT Y ever again.

        As if I needed to hear Y IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR X for the millionth fucking time.

  • Excellent (Score:3)

    by lucasnate1 ( 4682951 ) on Wednesday September 11, 2019 @05:34PM (#59182806) Homepage

    Porn is in many ways like alcohol and drugs, and the exposure of minors to it should be regulated.

    I really think that porn is part of the reason why man today are so emasculated, preferring to hide in the fantasy worlds inside their homes instead of taking an interest in real life.

    • Re:Excellent (Score:5, Interesting)

      by nukenerd ( 172703 ) on Wednesday September 11, 2019 @06:41PM (#59183154)
      Exposure to minors is a different issue from men (ie adults) being emasculated and hiding in "fantasy worlds". Maybe it's difficult for such men to take an interest in "real life" if "real life" takes no interest in themselves. Men have become demonised by the feminists, and analysis of dating apps [medium.com] has shown that typically 80% of women are only interested in the top 20% of men - the "Jocks" who have been there throughout history and remain undented by femisism.

      Two or more generations ago you only ever met the girl next door, or one from a limited choice at the local dance hall, and married her. Pin-up mags would only feature 5-6 girls per monthy issue, tastefully posed, and no sex was shown. Now with dating apps, and the cultural acceptance of promiscuity, the unintended consequences are to extended the reach of Jocks, and to allow women to excercise their "harem" instinct. (Women are attracted to men if other women are also attracted to them.) At the same time you can watch as much sex on the internet as you have time for. It is hardly suprising that many male incels have retreated into sexual fantasy and porn.

    • This comment brings up many questions... I'll pick my top 3:

      1) Why do you care what other men are doing with their time?

      2) Why do you think porn is the reason, and can you provide proof?

      3) Are a majority of men more emasculated today than the majority of men in the past? And please provide numbers of, and a definition of "emasculated".

    • If porn was emasculating then the US military would be known for knitting and sharing feelings. It's practically currency. For some service members it's the only media they consume outside of music and music videos.
      Dating is completely fucked for young kids these days. How would you feel if you were hearing stories about women who wanted it but pretended not to so they wouldn't be 'sluts' and now I hear women saying they pretend to want it when they don't as well? I remember being a young man agonizi

    • I could almost agree with you on the first point, were it not for the evident impossibility of regulation. It was nearly impossible to enforce any prohibition on pornography before the internet - now it's just ridiculous to try. A law that cannot be effectively enforced is a terrible law.

    • I don't think its the Porn that's driving them to be anti-social or engage in life. Its a symptom of a much bigger problem related to gender discrimination and stereotyping. For over 50 years there has been a public narrative and discussion around women and the challenges they face in society. But we have not even begun to scratch the surface on issues that affect men because men are always seen as expendable (war) and by default everything is their fault alone (as if it happens inside a vacuum). I do agre

  • Age vs. Identity (Score:3)

    by CanEHdian ( 1098955 ) on Wednesday September 11, 2019 @05:52PM (#59182934)
    How can you do an age verification without an identity verification? The latter would be the problem.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by skegg ( 666571 )

      Well, that's the whole point of such regulation: to frighten citizens from proceeding with verification because we'd have to give our identities.

      And why shouldn't the Australian government introduce such laws? When most of my fellow citizens keep voting for the same 2 f***king political parties irrespective of how badly they treat us. We won't have real change in this country until voters look at other candidates; the major parties need to be given an electoral fright.

  • I remember back in the day when every keyboard jockey and their mother here and elsewhere on the internet mocked the US for being uptight and puritanical. Well at least we don't have to get licenses to watch porn yet so nya nana nya nya.

    • US law is actually a lot more restrictive regarding pornography than most people realise - it's just that there is no effort at enforcement.
      https://www.justice.gov/crimin... [justice.gov]
      Five year prison sentence for distributing pornography on the internet.

      It's a recurring gripe of the social-conservative pressure groups that these laws exist but are not enforced.

    • Well that's the difference between a House Committee Investigation and a law. They will investigate, they will see it's fucking stupid, and then we will all go back to laughing at Americans.

      But to be fair, just because America is batshit crazy doesn't mean you're the only ones. The world is big, and there's plenty of people to laugh at you, and plenty of people to stand by your side and be laughed at (looking at you Great Britain)

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I have seen people unironically claim that a minor seeing bare breasts will adversely affect them, nevermind that infants literally suck them for milk.

  • Not a good track record (Score:3)

    by JazzXP ( 770338 ) on Wednesday September 11, 2019 @06:30PM (#59183124) Homepage
    Given the general incompetence of our government implementing such things, nothing will change. Just set your DNS to 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 and everything will be fine.

    • Given this is only a House Committee investigation, nothing will change. I doubt it even gets as far as a recommendation to be drafted as a bill.

  • "The UK's age verification system for online pornography became mandatory on July 15."

    Hearing this news, executives at Nord VPN and PIA threw parties for their employees and bought several cases of Dom.

    Of course, the Australian government could make VPNs illegal in Oz. That should go well. It's not like the whole white population aren't descended from exiled British felons.

    • This was tried a few years ago when Labor was in power. They wanted to censor the internet. There was a huge backlash. Big enough that even thought most politicians are generally conservative, they realized that this would cost real votes, and stopped it. Democracy at work.

      (Conway, the catholic main proponent of censorship to uphold moral values, then retired and became a lobbyist for the gambling industry.)

      • Thanks for the background. I'm Canadian, so I have some understanding of Australia, but would never be able to put things in context except through your little history lesson.

        By the way, I LOVE your last sentence. It just sums up Bible-thumpers so perfectly.

    • "The UK's age verification system for online pornography became mandatory on July 15."
      Yeah, but nothing was actually done, so they've postponed it again. [theguardian.com]
      This time it's supposed to be because of the EU (of course), and totally not because every single online company in the UK has told the government that it's unworkable.

      • Thanks. I was wondering how it was going. Over here in Canada, the silence has been deafening, and I would have expected some pretty loud protests if it was going as advertised.

  • ... an unrealistic view of how fast a plumber will come to your house.

  • Tracking (Score:3)

    by dohzer ( 867770 ) on Wednesday September 11, 2019 @08:59PM (#59183632)

    Let's face it. They don't want age verification. They want to track who is watching what. The age thing is just a cover.

  • Ban old people from the internet, and from having any say in how the internet is run.
    Anybody at or above the age of should be banned from having anything to do with the internet forever.

  • Here's an idea: How about recognising that 'random mechanics' in computer games fueled by spending real money are a form of stealthy, unregulated gambling?

  • UK ban is not in place (Score:3)

    by shilly ( 142940 ) on Thursday September 12, 2019 @03:29AM (#59184392)

    The UK ban hasn't started. Was supposed to start in July, but the government fucked it up. So it was delayed by "about" six months. Since then, we've had a new government and Brexit has become even more of a gigantic distracting shitshow, so with any luck, this will all get quietly forgotten, and UK citizens won't be forced to share their porn habits with sketchy private companies regulated by a body with no experience whatsoever of technical internet regulation.

  • If they make it mandatory and a pain in the ass to opt out you can bet your ass people are just going to go to the cure-all for censorship, the VPN.

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