Australians who are logged into their Google or Microsoft account while searching the internet will encounter age verification checks “within 6 months”.
While only logged-in users will be required to have their age checked, many Australians typically surf the web while logged into accounts from Google, which dominates Australia’s search market and also runs Gmail and YouTube; and Microsoft, which runs the Bing search engine and email platform Outlook.
If a search engine’s age assurance systems believe a signed-in user is “likely to be an Australian child” under the age of 18, they will need to set safety tools such as “safe search” functions at their highest setting by default to filter out pornography and high impact violence, including in advertising.
Currently, Australians must be at least 13 years of age to manage their own Google or Microsoft account.
There is a difference between automatically restricting NSFW content to known minors and using AI to guess their age based on browsing activity. Unfortunately, Australia is planning to do the later. That means that anyone logged into an account related to their search engine will have their browsing data scrutinized.
The age assurance technologies used are expected to be similar to those currently being considered for Australia’s under-16s social media ban, which is expected to begin in December.
Age assurance methods can include age verification systems, which use government documents or ID; age estimation systems, which typically use biometrics; and age inference systems, which use data about online activity or accounts to infer age.
Search engines will not be required to implement age assurance measures for users who are not logged in to their services, according to the new rules.
Even if this requirement only affects registered accounts, I am afraid that this can lead to a slippery slope in the near future. Will these age verification systems eventually be deployed to the masses?
I hope this experiment fails massively and falls into obscurity…but we’ll see the results later.