Eros Association is very concerned by a submission made by the Department of Home Affairs supporting the utilise facial recognition technology as age verification for online pornography.
As Eros has stated in its submission to the inquiry into age verification, any attempt to verify a person’s age online using personal details is likely to raise serious privacy and civil liberties concerns.
“This is a complete misuse of facial recognition technology” notes Ms Rachel Payne, General Manager of Eros, “the Department of Home Affairs should concern itself with national security issues, and not how Australian’s are getting their rocks off”.
Eros’ submission highlighted that any attempt to regulate online pornography is likely to conflict with ongoing reviews of Australian classification guidelines and would largely be ineffective given most forms of pornography are prohibited under current classification laws.
“It’s time we had a frank and honest conversation about Australia’s adult media laws” said Ms Payne, “but extending Big Brother to our browsing habits is a step backwards”.
Eros is pushing for reform of not only the National Classification Code but production capabilities to enhance the Australian adult media industry.
