SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia has given the internet industry six months to draw up an enforceable code detailing how to prevent children from viewing pornography and other inappropriate material online, or face the imposition of the code, the regulator said on Tuesday.
The cybersecurity commissioner said he had written to the internet industry demanding a plan by 3 October setting out how to protect minors from high-impact content before they are ready, including content about suicide and eating disorders.
The commissioner said the code should set standards for how app stores, websites including pornography and dating sites, search engines, social media platforms, chat services and even multiplayer gaming platforms check whether content is suitable for users.
“Children’s exposure to violent and extreme pornography is a serious concern for many parents and carers, who play a key role in this,” Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a statement.
“But it can’t be all on their shoulders. We also need industry to play its part by putting up some effective barriers,” she added.
The proposal launches the second phase of the development of industry codes overseen by the regulator, which has previously approved codes on how internet companies should prevent the spread of content related to terrorism or child sexual exploitation.
Measures covered by the code to protect children from pornography could include age verification, default parental controls and software that blurs or filters unwanted sexual content, the regulator said.
A spokesperson for Alphabet (NASDAQ:) subsidiary Google said the company would work closely with the industry on the modern code, while a spokesperson for Facebook (NASDAQ:) and Instagram owner Meta said the company would continue to work constructively with the e-security commissioner.
Representatives for X, formerly Twitter, and app store provider Apple (NASDAQ:) were not initially available for comment.
A spokesman for DIGI, the industry body representing most of the gigantic internet companies that worked on the first round of codes, said it looked forward to continuing to work with the government and the e-safety commissioner.
