Australia Now Considering ‘Age Verification’ Law for Porn Sites (AVN)

Read the full article by Michael French at AVN.com

Proposed law would follow model of troubled U.K. system which remains on hold after almost 3 years.

Close to three years after it was passed by the British parliament in 2017, the United Kingdom’s porn site “age verification” law appears no closer to taking effect. As AVN.com reported, implementation of the law—which requires porn site users to upload personal documents in order to prove that they are over 18—has been delayed repeatedly. Most recently, the law was supposedly to take effect on July 15, but that date, like several before it, fell by the wayside.

Despite the farcical results of the U.K. attempt to ban porn for teens and children, now Australia wants to copy the clearly flawed law, according to a report by the Guardian newspaper. 

The Australian House of Representatives standing committee on social policy and legal affairs was tasked by the government this week with investigating how the U.K. age verification plan works—or doesn’t work—to determine if a similar system could be attempted Down Under. The committee is also investigating online gambling sites, which already use age verification systems, to see if those models would be appropriate for porn sites as well.