Aussie Government Is Looking At Making People Prove Their Age To Access Porn

The Australian government is looking at potentially making people prove their age to access pornography.

They have been told children as young as eight have been casting their eyes over X-rated material and work has been underway to stop this.

A joint committee has been established to look at ways of preventing youngsters seeing adults 'doing it' and they've come up with a top recommendation: mandatory age verification.

How it will manage this is anyone's guess, however you could be forced to upload your drivers licence or birth certificate to ensure you're over the age of 18.

Everyone who has ever perused corners of the internet they shouldn't have been will know that it only takes putting in a year older than 2002 to get access.

But the government is committed to making sure people only over the age of 18 can access porn.

Chair of the committee looking at stopping minors watching XXX content, Andrew Wallace, said youngster's minds can be warped if they see porn too young.

"Addiction to pornography, particularly with young people, is having a direct correlation with the levels of violence we are seeing in homes," he said, via the ABC.

"This hardcore porn that we are seeing on the internet is often very degrading towards women, very violent towards women and children.

"It's just common sense there is a correlation, and I'm not saying it's the only reason."

Back in 2019, the Australian government flagged introducing mandatory face scans to prove your age.

The Department of Home Affairs said the scan could be crosschecked against other photos on its database, such as the photo found on a driver's license.

The department wrote to a parliamentary committee looking into the idea, adding: "This could assist in age verification, for example by preventing a minor from using their parent's driver licence to circumvent age verification controls."

But Mr Wallace is also keen on closing the loopholes that allow porn to be accidentally seen by minors.

He believes there are plenty of kids out there who aren't necessarily searching for X-rated content when looking on the internet.

"Young people typing in the names of particular Disney characters and [are] then them being directed to hardcore porn sites," he said.

"What the recommendation does is recommends to government to introduce laws which require providers to positively identify the age of a user of their content.

"Will it stop every access? No, it won't, but it will certainly prevent young people from stumbling across pornography and prevent multiple instances of young people accessing it."

Featured Image Credit: PA/Creative Commons

Topics: Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie