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Age Verification Isn’t Stopping at Social Media

Oh, you thought age verification stopped with social media?

Think again.

Under growing regulatory pressure in Australia and comparable jurisdictions, age-verification and age-assurance requirements are expanding beyond social platforms, with proposals and early enforcement models increasingly affecting search engines and general access to online information for minors.

Australia’s regulatory direction is shaped in part by the Online Safety Act 2021, which significantly expanded the authority of the eSafety Commissioner. Ongoing policy discussions around a proposed “Digital Duty of Care” would further formalize platform obligations related to content moderation, risk management, and user access.

While not all measures are fully implemented nationwide, major technology companies are already adapting their systems in anticipation of enforcement. Google, for example, has publicly confirmed the development and deployment of age-estimation and age-assurance technologies to comply with regional regulations and emerging legal standards (Google Safety Blog).

This approach closely mirrors enacted policy in the United Kingdom. The UK Online Safety Act explicitly requires age-assurance mechanisms for access to certain online content, including content surfaced through search services. UK government guidance acknowledges that these obligations affect search engines and general-purpose platforms, not just social media.

Against this backdrop, a national campaign has been launched with CitizenGO, calling for the withdrawal of Australia’s proposed Digital Duty of Care framework and a halt to future efforts that would mandate content controls, speech obligations, or identity and age checks for ordinary users.

Supporters of these policies frame them as necessary for child protection. However, civil liberties organizations and privacy advocates warn that age-verification regimes function as de facto identity systems, conditioning access to information on verification and increasing the collection of sensitive data. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has repeatedly cautioned that age-verification laws pose serious risks to privacy, anonymity, and free expression (EFF: Age Verification).

Australia’s own human rights and privacy stakeholders have raised similar concerns, warning that broad duty-of-care obligations risk being disproportionate, difficult to enforce fairly, and prone to overreach ( Australian Human Rights Commission).

This is why critics argue the issue is no longer just about safety.

Once access to search and information is conditioned on verification, participation ceases to be voluntary. What begins as age assurance for minors can quickly normalize identity checks for everyone.

If this trajectory is not challenged early, the next phase is unlikely to be presented as a choice. It will be treated as compliance.

This article expresses opinion and analysis based on publicly available laws, policy proposals, and statements by regulators, technology companies, and civil liberties organizations. It is not legal advice.

Tags:
#AgeVerification #DigitalID #FreeSpeech #OnlineFreedom #Australia #DutyOfCare #CivilLiberties #StopTheCreep