Australia wants to use face recognition for porn age verification

Lawmakers in Australia (like their counterparts in the United Kingdom) are looking for an effective way to limit kids' access to online pornography. Australia's Department of Home Affairs has a possible solution: face-recognition technology. "Home Affairs is developing a Face Verification Service which matches a person's photo against images used on one of their evidence of identity documents to help verify their identity," the government agency wrote in a recent regulatory filing. "This could assist in age verification, for example by preventing a minor from using their parent's driver license to circumvent age verification controls." [...]

Earlier this year, the United Kingdom came close to establishing its own system for age-verifying pornography consumers. But the British system didn't mandate the use of any specific technology - instead leaving it up to porn sites to decide how best to verify their users' ages. That system was scheduled to take effect on July 15. But days before the deadline, and under fire from privacy advocates, the government put it on an indefinite hold.

source: Article 'Australia wants to use face recognition for porn age verification - What could possibly go wrong?' by Timothy B. Lee; arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/10/australia-wants-to-use-face-recognition-for-porn-age-verification/; Ars Technica; 28 October 2019