Australia’s online safety regulator, eSafety commissioner, has given the internet industry six months to set up a code that will prevent children from accessing adult content and related inappropriate content.
Under the Online Safety Act, eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant has asked the tech companies to come up with a code before Oct. 3 that will check the user’s age, have safe search and parental controls and allow users to filter or blur sexual content.
In the May budget, the Labor government had assured to implement a pilot project to identify ways to protect children from online harm.
The safety codes will cover app stores, apps, websites including porn sites, search engines, social media services, hosting services, internet service providers, instant messaging, multiplayer gaming and online dating services, The Guardian reported
Grant has reached out to tech groups such as Digital Industry Group (DIGI), the Communications Alliance, Interactive Games and Entertainment Association and the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association to form the rules and devise the code.
As tech companies in different sectors will be involved to devise the safety code, Grant said it would mean “there isn’t a single point of failure.” Age verification will be introduced through safeguards on the smartphone.
“The larger porn sites actually have fairly robust age verification provisions in place [but] there are going to be rogue porn sites all over the internet that are never going to comply,” Grant said.
According to Reuters report, the enforceable code should also include content on suicide and eating disorders.
It’s the second code that the regulator has demanded. Previously, the internet companies were asked to set up code to prevent the spread of terrorism and child sexual exploitation content.
DIGI, an industry body that covers large internet companies and worked on the first round of codes, said it would continue to engage with the government and the eSafety commissioner.
