Gone are the days for teens to access porn sites using the so-called verification method of selecting yes and no for accessing the site. According to new rules Australians might have to scan their faces before accessing porn websites, Australia proposed a face scan to block minors from accessing porn and gambling.
The lawmakers are still finding a way to stop children from accessing the websites out of their reach, 18+ but a captcha isn’t helping so they come with the best solution that can possibly be to scan their faces before letting them in.
Last month, an Australian government committee asked for ideas to stop minors from accessing porn and now – The Department of Home Affairs – has offered a solution, to scan visitor’s faces and matching them with government photos to verify their ages.
The Department of Home Affairs – has submitted a solution that starts scanning porn viewer’s face and later matching them up with government photos, to verify their ages.
In the one page submission, Home Affairs notes that the system “could assist in age verification, for example by preventing a minor from using their parent’s driver to circumvent age verification controls”.
However, Home Affairs does not explain exactly how this age verification would work and address potential problems related to it.
Australia is not the first nation to use the facial recognition tech for this purpose. The United Kingdom planned to ban porn websites that did not include age checks, either through any face detection system or other age verification system that can guarantee that the viewer is not less than 18 years old.
The United Kingdom forced the website to do the same but the plan was dropped completely amid concerns about privacy.
Facebook introduced face recognition as a way for users to let them know if their photo was being used a profile picture or in any other way on the platform, even if you are not tagged in the image.
This might help stop the “revenge porn”, which is the distribution of images and videos with consent.
To access the site viewer or uploader has to go through a face scan and that can help identify the one who uploaded it.
Since the pros are better but there are always cons, the one being user’s data being used by the government, when they give access for their facial recognition, the data will be saved and the user’s life will not be much private anymore.
The fate of Australian teens will be decided whether they go with the decision of Home Affairs for implementing an age verification system through face scan or some other verification system or it will end up like the United Kingdom.
