The Federal Labor Government has sensationally rejected a core component of the landmark Roadmap for Age Verification, despite long-standing bipartisan support in Parliament, expert advice, and overwhelming public support.
The Roadmap calls on Government to develop, implement, and evaluate a pilot program for the use of age assurance technologies in online pornography. This would be the pathway to universal mandatory age verification across online pornography platforms.
The Federal Government’s decision not to proceed with the trial was welcomed by porn industry lobbyists, EROS Association, who celebrated that Government would “not to force adult sites to use age identification technology”.
Federal Member for Fisher and Deputy Chair of Parliament’s powerful intelligence and security committee, Andrew Wallace said that the decision demonstrated without doubt that the Albanese Labor Government was “in bed with big porn”, trading the safety of children for the comfort of saying lots but doing very little.
The roadmap comes after a 2020 bi-partisan inquiry into age verification, led by Mr Wallace as then Chair of the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, recommended that Government task the eSafety Commissioner to “expeditiously develop and publish a roadmap for the implementation of a regime of mandatory age verification for online pornographic material” (Recommendation 3, Protecting the Age of Innocence Report, 2020).
“Children are confronting a torrent of online sexual exploitation and exposure,” Mr Wallace said, adding, “Nearly three years ago, the Coalition tasked the eSafety Commissioner with the job of developing this roadmap to keep kids safe online.”
“Now, when handed an evidence-based solution to one of our most heinous social ills, this Labor Government have thrown their hands up and surrendered the welfare of Aussie kids to big porn. The Federal Government has just put Dracula in charge of the Blood Bank,” Mr Wallace said.
The roadmap has gone some way in examining the complex range of issues that age verification gives rise to, and its recommendation of a pilot program would allow government, industry, and civil society to carefully and methodically implement a broader age assurance regime. Failing to trial the technology will only impede progress on the mitigating the accessibility of pornography to Australian children.
While Mr Wallace said he welcomed the implementation of industry codes in relation to pornographic material, he accused the Federal Government of blame-shifting after they indicated that industry has “the primary responsibility for Australian users of their services” (p.3, Government Response to the Roadmap for Age Verification, 2023).
“Once again, we have a Federal Labor Government reneging on their responsibility to keep our kids safe. We can’t leave children’s safety up to big porn – whether by omission or with intent, they are complicit in all kinds of vile and criminal exploitation. Their primary interest is their bottom line.” Mr Wallace said.
“Government’s primary responsibility is to protect Australians and their interests. Families aren’t asking for anything more or less than a Government who will act to keep kids safe online” Mr Wallace added.
The Federal Government claims age assurance technologies are immature and have not committed to acting on a pilot program, whilst in the same report acknowledging that they are currently in use in other parts of the world. This comes at a time when the same responsible Minister, Michelle Rowland seeks to enact her deeply flawed, coercive Misinformation Bill which will censor free speech.
In Government, the Coalition was the first government in the world to establish an eSafety Commissioner. The Coalition set-up the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, legislated the Online Safety Act, cancelled paedophiles’ passports, set up the National Office for Child Safety, undertook an historic National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse, and launched law enforcement activities like Operation Arkstone which led to the arrest of 14 men on 828 charges of child exploitation.
On Labor’s record, Mr Wallace said, “All we’ve seen from this Albanese Labor Government is dithering, delays, a demotion of priorities, and devolution of responsibilities to those who actually cause harm. The Federal Labor Government have been sitting on this report for months and months, playing politics and refusing to accept bipartisan, expert recommendations.”
“Under a Federal Labor Government, Australian kids play second fiddle to porn companies and big tech” Mr Wallace added.
The eSafety Commissioner’s research found 75% of 16-18-year-olds had seen online pornography – 70% on porn websites. 1 in 3 first encountered pornographic material before the age of 13. According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies, as many as 44% of children between the ages of 9-16 had consumed pornography in the last month.
“These numbers should scare everyone,” Mr Wallace said. “As a civilised society, the idea that we have kids accessing hard-core, violent, graphic porn so freely is heinous and it has long-lasting impacts on young people’s concepts of what healthy sexuality should be. There is no doubt that there is a direct link between the exposure to violent hard-core pornography and family, domestic and sexual violence.”
“I continue to call on the Government to put aside their politics and to listen to Australian parents and the experts: trial this crucial technology and act to keep our kids safe online.”