As part of an increasing trend that makes it mandatory for individuals to verify their age before being allowed to access restricted content on social media, Google said the same regulations are set to be imposed on viewers in Australia in about a months’ time from now. The company revealed in a blog post users in Australia will be asked to furnish documents such as a driver’s license, passport, or credit card to view matured content on YouTube and Play Store.
Google said the above is in compliance with Australia’s ‘Online Safety Declaration 2022’ which seeks to restrict access of age-restricted content on social platforms to only appropriate users instead of making them open to all. The same will apply to the content shown on even third-party sites as well as such users would be redirected to YouTube for the age-verification process.
“As part of this process some Australian users may be asked to provide additional proof of age when attempting to watch mature content on YouTube or downloading content on Google Play,” Google’s government affairs and public policy senior manager Samantha Yorke wrote in a blog post. “If our systems are unable to establish that a viewer is above the age of 18, we will request that they provide a valid ID or credit card to verify their age.”
The Mountain View company further added the uploaded documents would ensure the content is available to only the appropriate users and will help prevent fraud and abuse. Such documents are going to be stored in secured servers only for the duration of the verification process and are going to be deleted post that.
The above is part of a global trend that has started to take shape which seeks to enforce an age verification process that will segregate content on social media on the basis of what it contains. This way, companies and governments agencies aim to ensure that only those above a certain age are able to view matured content while kids are kept out of it. The European Union too has put in place the Audiovisual Media Services Directive which is similar in its scope. Meta and Instagram too have announced steps to ensure kids aren’t exposed to obscene or age-restricted content via suitable steps either in the process of being implemented or is in developmental stages.
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