Australian Politics
Wednesday, May 08, 2024
Could age verification for porn actually work?
I think the answer is a clear No. Censorship of various sorts is already widely practiced by the Left and people have got used to evading it -- by VPNs and other means. And if a kid is not up to evading it themselves a smarter classmate will be able -- and will enjoy the prestige of sharing that wisdom and its product
In a way, it's weird that it's taken this long for age verification to catch fire in Australian politics.
Stopping literal children from accessing porn online, something they're not actually allowed to do anyway, seems like a slam dunk for any politician within cooee of Australia's mythic political centre — somewhere above sausage sizzles and below kissing babies.
The fact that it did take until May (May!) in 2024 is incontrovertible proof that it's not as easy as it sounds.
Still, here we are, standing on the brink of a pilot for age verification technology, which will receive $6.5 million in next week's federal budget.
Coalition push to trial social media block for children
The federal opposition urges the government to trial age verification schemes that would lock children out of social media platforms, as X's feud with Australia escalates.
It's a very similar proposal to the one contained in a November 2023 private members bill from the Coalition's communications spokesman, David Coleman, who has now been restricted to complaining about a "baffling" delay.
So far, the main difference seems to be that the Coalition was offering a fraction more money — $200,000 — but there's otherwise not much observable daylight between them.
On their similarities, both proposals can be traced back to the eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, who recommended a pilot like this back in March 2023 as part of her roadmap towards mandating age verification for online porn.
It took the government five months to respond with a longer version of the answer: "not yet".
At the time, Labor was citing the commission's advice that the technology was "immature", saying "the roadmap makes clear that a decision to mandate age assurance is not ready to be taken".
Tech years are a bit like dog years though, and a lot can happen in 11 months. So in February 2024, when the eSafety Commissioner was asked at Senate Estimates whether there were any technological barriers to the pilot going ahead, she replied: "No. None whatsoever."
"The age assurance industry is maturing … I think the time is right now that we all move forward," she said.
So how could a porn website reliably check a person's age?
In its roadmap, the eSafety Commissioner recommended a "double-blind tokenised approach".
As the name suggests, the system would involve anonymised digital tokens, issued by a third-party provider accredited to securely receive and verify personal data.
The token could then be presented as proof of age without a person ever having to hand over personal information to the porn site.
It sounds simple enough, but tech barriers are only the beginning.
The commissioner's roadmap also stated that "at this stage, there is likely no existing regulator or accreditation body that has the … capability to provide all the necessary functions".
Tokens aren't the only way, but at first glance, many of the methods currently on offer seem somewhat riskier for users.
After years of struggling to establish a scheme, the UK passed an "age assurance" law last year, and has made several suggestions to companies:
Allowing banks, mobile providers or credit card providers to confirm a user is over 18
Asking users to upload a photo to the site that is then matched with photo ID, and
Using of facial recognition tech that's trained to assess age.
France and Germany are also making their own attempts.
But a senior public servant in the Department of Communications, Bridget Gannon, told Senate Estimates in February that international experiences "don't provide us with a clear way forward".
Put another way, no one has figured this out yet.
Seven US states have passed similar laws and in the places where they've kicked in, it looks like a whole lot of people are using Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, to dodge them.
"Accessing porn has declined to such an extent that it doesn't look like people have stopped looking at pornography; it looks like they are bypassing the technology," Ms Gannon said — and she didn't just mean children.
In case you haven't done the maths on this yet, age verification laws would also affect the millions of Australian adults who legally access porn online.
Under an Australian scheme, every one of them would be asked to participate, and it doesn't take an expert to point out the gargantuan data honeypot that might be created in the process.
As Ms Gannon told Senate Estimates, any scheme will need to "consider Australians' willingness to participate".
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Sydney’s Cumberland Council courts Anti-Discrimination Act over same-sex book ban
But because Muslims want it, it will probably stay. Muslims matter a lot more than Christians
Western Sydney’s Cumberland City Council is at risk of breaking the Anti-Discrimination Act after voting to ban same-sex parenting books in its libraries.
The ban will affect eight libraries across the LGA and was put forward by city councillor and former Cumberland City mayor Steve Christou.
He alleged that parents were “distraught” upon seeing the book Same-Sex Parents by Holly Duhig in libraries.
Mr Christou spoke to Channel 9 on Wednesday, arguing that the parenting books were “sexualised” and that the ban was an effort to “let kids be kids”.
“You have to understand that at Cumberland City Council, about 60 per cent of the community was born overseas and they have deep conservative values, family values and religious values, it doesn’t matter whether they’re Christian, Catholic, Orthodox, Islamic or Hindu,” Mr Christou said.
“We’ve had consistent complaints on these kinds of books and similar issues infiltrating our libraries from local residents.
“Our community doesn’t want any form of sexualised books or our kids being opened up to any form of sexualisation in the libraries.
“Let kids be kids, they are innocent, let them enjoy reading a book.”
The NSW government has warned that this vote may be in breach of the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act, with a potential funding pull at the relevant libraries threatened.
Auburn MP Lynda Voltz has reportedly passed on the matter to NSW Arts Minister John Graham for review.
“If the government wants to take away funding from one of the most socially disadvantaged communities in NSW because their democratically elected council stood up for the values which they believe represents their local community, well shame on them,” Mr Christou said.
‘I would urge them not to do that.”
In January, Mr Christou said he would ban Welcome to Country ceremonies in Western Sydney. A month later he called for a ban on drag story time sessions in the council area.
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Farmers look to head off biosecurity levy
Another tax!
Farmers have launched a last ditch attack on the Albanese government’s looming biosecurity levy, arguing it is in “contempt” of the agriculture industry.
The levy, which would raise $50m a year from producers, is due to be voted on in the senate next week and is supposed to be implemented from July 1.
But a senate committee conducting an inquiry into the tax on farmers was last week told the department was well behind on the implementation of collecting the levies.
The National Farmers’ Federation has launched an eleventh hour “day of action” from the Beef2024 industry event in Rockhampton, where Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has been speaking to farmers.
“On behalf of our members, nearly all of Australia’s 85,000 producers and the thousands of individuals and businesses in the supply chain, we are telling this government to scrap the tax,” NFF president David Jochinke said.
“We are less than two months away from this proposed levy being implemented, yet we still have no idea how the levy will be collected and managed. What a shambles.”
Farmers have argued against the policy, which will see the levy applied to each industry sector based on its gross value product over three years, saying it would force them to pay for biosecurity measures to protect them from products imported by their competitors.
The Nationals have also launched a new petition calling for the levy to be scrapped.
“The Nationals proudly stand with the National Farmers’ Federation today and support our farmers on their day of action to scrap the tax,” party leader David Littleproud said.
“Labor has continued to ignore our pleas to stop this senseless new tax. We still don’t know how the tax will be collected or managed. But we do know the tax will go towards consolidated revenue.”
The senate inquiry into the levy is due to report back to the government on Friday
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Greens want a big new bureaucracy to supervise our supermarkets
Guess who would wear the costs of it
Woolworths boss Brad Banducci won’t be pursued by the Greens-led Senate supermarket inquiry for contempt, and jail time of up to six months, after his fiery appearance last month but the inquiry has hit out at the powerful supermarket chains with recommendations to curtail their power, heighten regulatory oversight and possibly break them up.
In a lengthy 195-page report released on Tuesday, which carried 14 key recommendations aimed at lifting competition, limiting the power of Woolworths and Coles and beefing up regulation, the inquiry heavily criticised Mr Banducci for his performance, castigated Bunnings for not sending its CEO and ‘named and shamed’ multinational supermarket suppliers who declined to turn up at all.
The highly-anticipated report comes after the Albanese government earlier this year gave approval for the Greens-led inquiry to go ahead, handing Greens Senator Nick McKim a powerful pulpit as inquiry chairman to level accusations of price gouging and profiteering at Woolworths and Coles, and in one combative hearing threaten Mr Banducci with contempt charges and jail time.
The 14 key recommendations include recommending the federal government pursue a range of new rules and legislation to combat the power of the supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles, including divestiture powers, establishing a prices commission and making the food and grocery code of conduct compulsory.
Divestiture powers could allow a court to break up a large corporation, such as the biggest supermarket chains, if they were seen to be misusing their market power. The bosses of Woolworths and Coles warned in their public hearings that divestiture could cause unintended consequences such as job losses and a fall in business investment, while other witnesses before the inquiry argued in favour of these powers being introduced.
The committee also recommended that, as a matter of priority, the government establish a Commission on Prices and Competition to examine prices and price setting practices of industries across the economy, and review government and other restrictions on effective competition which are leading to high prices.
This commission would have the authority to, among other things, monitor and investigate supermarket prices and price setting practices, conduct market studies to review restrictions on competition in the supermarket sector, require supermarkets to publish historical pricing data that is transparent and accessible to both suppliers and consumers and access any data and information required to undertake its work, including supermarket pricing, mark-ups and profits data and price setting policies.
It has also called on the Competition and Consumer Act to be amended to prohibit the “charging of excess prices, otherwise known as price gouging”, merger laws to be strengthened, and the ACCC be given greater funding.
It has also recommended the current voluntary food and grocery code of conduct that covers the relationship between suppliers and Woolworths, Coles, Metcash and Aldi, be made mandatory.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Evelyn Rae, a conservative Australian political commentator
Margo Robbie -- a beautiful australian
My son Joe at ANU
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