Australia's Idiotic War On Porn Returns, This Time Using Facial Recognition
from the this-isn't-going-to-work-out-you-ninnies dept
For years now, governments around the world have attempted to block, filter, or otherwise restrict the public's access to porn. And for just as long those efforts have routinely and repeatedly fallen flat on their face. Whether it's the UK's bungled and incoherent plan to employ age-checks to restrict porn access, or Utah's seemingly endless efforts to fiter porn entirely, history is filled with examples of how trying to thwart porn simply doesn't work. Filters are easy to bypass and tend to cause more problems than they solve. Waging war on porn at scale always ends in wasted money and headaches.
Apparently learning nothing from that time a teenage kid bypassed Australia's $89 million porn filters in a matter of minutes, Australia's back with a new idea to combat porn: restricting access to it via the use of facial recognition technology:
"Under the proposal from the Department of Home Affairs, a computer user’s face would be matched to images from official identity documents. It does not say how the user would submit a facial image at the beginning of each online session."
Obviously the government retaining a massive database of not only citizen facial scans -- but who is or isn't watching porn -- isn't being received well by privacy advocates. A parliamentary committee of the Australian House of Representatives began an inquiry last month fielding feedback on the effectiveness of age verification systems for adult websites and internet gambling. A filing from Australia's Department of Home Affairs championed the idea, suggesting an expansion of the government's existing facial recognition database to restrict access to online porn.
Beyond that, it's pretty clear that nobody can really explain how it will work, which is always a good sign for these types of efforts. And nobody in the Australian government wants to actually own or even talk about the dumb plan:
"The Department of Home Affairs did not respond to questions about the proposal, and the attorney general’s office, when asked to comment on the legal ramifications of the system, directed all questions to Home Affairs."
It's not clear how many times we need to go through this before governments realize that restricting access to internet porn on any meaningful scale is not only impossible given technical countermeasures like proxies or VPNs, it usually results in more problems than it causes -- be that legitimate websites being caught in the filter trap, or collected data being compromised by hackers or used by governments in ways not originally advertised.
In about two years after millions are wasted, Australia will shelve the project and lives will go on, with people worried about illegal underage access to porn doing what they should have done from the start: a little thing called responsible parenting.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: australia, facial recognition, internet, moral panic, porn
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
This world is nuts
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
These governments who restrict access to porn laughably have in their possession the largest of porn depots of photos and video imagery in the world!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
And not all of it is legal!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Orgasm facial or normal porn facial recognition?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Cricky! This interfering with my ability to didgeri my doo!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Careful putting it on the barbie, mate.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Define "porn."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
definition:
porn (n) - political or financial support for people I don't like
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
"If it exists there's porn of it." Would imply anything is potentially porn to the right person. I'm sure that governments love indulging their fetish of looking at mugshot photos of their slav....err.... citizens. Unfortunately we citizens don't get to put such locks on their access.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Stop talking that way about the Corps..
you know the Gov. cant do anything alone, they have to PAY US to get it done..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"It does not say how the user would submit a facial image at the beginning of each online session"
It's easy. When someone navigates to a porn site, they will be prompted to "Upload a facial".
If they appear of-age, they can continue.
If they do not appear of-age, they will be immediately arrested for distribution of child pornography.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
And you will be surprised at how many teenagers look exactly like their parents.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Aussie Porn
Is the user uploading a facial image or image of a facial?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So, Australia's gov wants to take away their citizens privacy with an encryption ban and micromanage all their people's sex life with porn bans.
Are we sure we're talking about Australia and not China?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
No, the US.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
So far our courts have thrown out those laws. And while they do extra-legally invade legitimately expected privacy anyway that doesn't it won't eventually get tossed with the rest of the crap laws eventually.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Why do you think they are loading the courts with their judges?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
If they outlaw VPN in the USA, I will continue to use it in violation of the law.
And arrest warrants are computerised. Just break into their computers and erase them, and that will be the end of it. If they put out any warrants for your arrest, jut erase them from their computers, and that will be the end of it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Then you ignore the ban and use your VPN anyway
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I am thinking that it is simply an excuse for demanding some sort of identification system that will track your ass across the globe, reporting everything you do to a group of anal retentive narcissistic little dictators.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
"You are the other. You shall be stripped of all rights and dignity through my suspicion. You are less than myself, for I am holy and just and you are not me. You will never be free of my suspicion, nor you shall ever satisfy my demands of surveillance. You are guilty. Of what is of no importance. The only thing sitting between you and death, is my willingness to reveal my true nature to the world."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's worse than just a facial recognition database
In order to ensure that not just the person at the computer is of age but everyone in the room is, the computer will have to be equipped with a webcam, and that webcam must be sufficiently wide-angle to see the entire room. Further, it must be constantly scanning while the porn is being viewed.
Bets on whether those cameras will come with working off buttons, and whether they might just 'accidentally' keep scanning the room for anything illegal even when porn isn't being viewed?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: It's worse than just a facial recognition database
Bets on how many of those spying computers either don't get bought or just get tossed out the window?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: It's worse than just a facial recognition database
Bets on whether it will soon be a criminal offense in Australia to not have a working webcam?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"Ceiling Cat is watching you masturbate."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Facial Recognition was my porn name!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Mine is Gus Guyser!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
How to make the government drop the idea after implementation:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Well, you can't expect the bureaucrats to have thought of everything, like the novel idea that one person could posess a picture of another. Possibly even without that person's knowledge.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
That's easy: Everyone is. What I worry about is that now they'll know WHAT porn we watch.
So, Mr Smith... it says here you are turned on by 'images of furries in chastity belts'...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I wonder..
"Under the proposal from the Department of Home Affairs, a computer user’s face would be matched to images from official identity documents. It does not say how the user would submit a facial image at the beginning of each online session."
Drivers license and ID cards, and just register for it..BUT what site is going to do that?
Dad, come here, let me take your picture..
Also, its a great way to get every ones pictures.. remember, they monitor the Servers and modem ID over there..(if implemented yet)
Lets understand something here...
TEENAGER..
HORMONES FROM HELL..
What to do... you cant go out and Rape a girl. And you may not have a willing girl friend...On the Pill(regulated), or take a chance to have a kid in your teens..
Do you think the Girl will take the chance?? That YOU WILL MARRY HER?>?>????
How many religions WANT you to be married and have sex and children at a young age??(even after science found that human women are having a hard time giving Birth, in the last few hundred years)
GET ON WITH SOME LOGIC YOU IDIOTS, let the kid do it in the bed room by themselves... Im not running around looking for a gay friend or a Girl with a good hand..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The market for masks of the faces of Australian members of parliament just opened up wide!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
it is Halloween..Good excuse also.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
And expect VPN usage in Australia to sckyrocket if this goes through
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Between this, and the enviro-loonies belief that streaming, both legal and illegal, are contributing to global warming, I think the VPN business is a good business to get into right now, if you have to the starting capital to do it.
Whether it is Australia wanting to restrict access to porn or enviromentalists wanting to find some way to block or restrict streaming, both legal and illegal, I see a big boom in the VPN business coming, as people will use VPNs to hide either streaming, or watching porn.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
responsible parenting?
Isn't that what nannies are for?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"It's not clear how many times we need to go through this before governments realize that restricting access to internet porn on any meaningful scale is not only impossible given technical countermeasures like proxies or VPNs, it usually results in more problems than it causes"
You got that right. Like I said in another comment, between this, and environmentalists wanting to block or restrict streaming sites, both legal and illegal, because they say it contributes to global warming, I see the a coming boom in the VPN business, and why you need to get into the VPN business now, if you have the capital for it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wankers
Seriously I am not sure if we have too many wankers in the government or not enough.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
...a little thing called responsible parenting.
Which, in my opinion, would realize that a teen wanting (and, I hardly need add, getting) access to porn is nothing to scream about. And nothing to get all Big-Brother-I'm-Looking-Over-Your-Shoulder about.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The darkness below
these servers are nothing but porn!
-parliament servers
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
oh so that’s why Scott Morrison hates technology...
-continued
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Do they want my face before I buy porn, DURING the porn or afterwards?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This kind of facial recognition?
https://www.zdnet.com/article/samsung-galaxy-s10-facial-recognition-fooled-by-a-video-o f-the-phone-owner/
The only fun part of this being implemented would be seeing how many creative ways people come up with fooling the system before the government accepts it's a pointless idea.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
use your cellphone and take a picture of your parents...DUH!!
Hold it up closer and closer until it triggers..
ANd the odds are, that most Kids, tend to look abit like their parents..Just get a bald cap..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]