The noose tightens … by degrees … EWNZ
From David Strom
via Robin Westenra @ substack
I did not know this until I ran across a post on X, but come December 27, 2025, every internet search any person makes will require Digital ID verification before it can be completed.
If the search engine provider fails to check for your ID, they face a $50 million fine. For each “breach” of the law.
Needless to say, I am pretty sure that search engines will comply with the law.
Australians will soon be subjected to mandatory age checks across the internet landscape, in what has been described as a huge and unprecedented change.
Search engines are next in line for the same controversial age-assurance technology behind the teen social media ban, and other parts of the internet are likely to follow suit.
At the end of June, Australia quietly introduced rules forcing companies such as Google and Microsoft to check the ages of logged-in users, in an effort to limit children’s access to harmful content such as pornography.
But experts have warned the move could compromise Australians’ privacy online and may not do much to protect young people.
“I have not seen anything like this anywhere else in the world,” said Lisa Given, professor of Information Sciences from RMIT, who specialises in age-assurance technology.
“As people learn about the implications of this, we will likely see people stepping up and saying, ‘Wait a minute, why wasn’t I told that this was going to happen?’”
From December 27, Google — which dominates the Australian search market with a share of more than 90 per cent — and its rival, Microsoft, will have to use some form of age-assurance technology on users when they sign in, or face fines of almost $50 million per breach.
The search results for logged-in users under the age of 18 will be filtered for pornography, high-impact violence, material promoting eating disorders and a range of other content.
Despite the apparent magnitude of the shift, it has mostly gone unnoticed, in stark contrast to the political and media fanfare surrounding the teen social media ban, which will block under-16s from major platforms using similar technology.
It’s for the children, you see. Because of course it is. Everything is for the children.
Read at the link below
Image by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi from Pixabay
