Australia's new age verification codes bring essential offline protections into the digital world. These industry-developed standards will ensure that kids aren't exposed to pornography, violence and self-harm content, just as society prevents them from entering bars or casinos, creating meaningful safeguards for children while maintaining access and privacy for adults.
Forcing Australians to hand over government IDs and personal documents to access the internet creates dangerous privacy risks and unintended consequences, all without any proven effectiveness at protecting children. Rather, these restrictions threaten to do the opposite, driving kids to darker, less secure parts of the internet, potentially jeopardizing their safety.
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