Australia is quietly introducing 'unprecedented' age checks for search engines like Google

Australians will soon be subjected to mandatory age checks across the internet landscape, in what has been described as a huge and unprecedented change.

Search engines are next in line for the same controversial age-assurance technology behind the teen social media ban, and other parts of the internet are likely to follow suit.

At the end of June, Australia quietly introduced rules forcing companies such as Google and Microsoft to check the ages of logged-in users, in an effort to limit children's access to harmful content such as pornography.

From December 27, Google — which dominates the Australian search market with a share of more than 90 per cent — and its rival, Microsoft, will have to use some form of age-assurance technology on users when they sign in, or face fines of almost $50 million per breach.

The search results for logged-in users under the age of 18 will be filtered for pornography, high-impact violence, material promoting eating disorders and a range of other content.

Despite the apparent magnitude of the shift, it has mostly gone unnoticed, in stark contrast to the political and media fanfare surrounding the teen social media ban, which will block under-16s from major platforms using similar technology.

How will the changes work, and will they keep kids safe?

Search engines will have a suite of options to choose from for checking the ages of their Australian users.

There are seven main methods listed in the new regulations:

    ○ Photo ID checks
    ○ Face scanning age estimation tools
    ○ Credit card checks
    ○ Digital ID
    ○ Vouching by the parent of a young person
    ○ Using AI to guess a user's age based on the data the company already has
    ○ Relying on a third party that has already checked the user's age

They are similar if not identical options to those being considered as part of the teen social media ban, and some of them have been tested as part of the recent age-assurance technical trial, with mixed results.

EFA chair John Pane also warned the new rules for search engines could be circumvented using virtual private networks (VPNs).

"If the ambition of the government is to prevent children from accessing pornography, they're forgetting straight away the skills of these young people," he said.

Beyond concerns about the accuracy of age-assurance technology and the VPN workaround, the new search engine rules will still allow users to access adult content simply by not logging in.

• https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-11/age-verification-search-engines/105516256 

Billions of login credentials have been leaked and compiled into datasets online, giving criminals "unprecedented access" to accounts, according to new research from a cybersecurity publication.

The research from Cybernews revealed that a total of 16 billion credentials were compromised, including user passwords for Google, Facebook and Apple.

The report said the 30 exposed datasets each contained a vast amount of login information and the leaked information did not span from a single source, such as one breach targeting a company.

Instead, it appears that the data was stolen through multiple events over time and then compiled and briefly exposed publicly, which is when Cybernews reports that its researchers discovered it.

• https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-21/google-apple-facebook-passwords-caught-in-cyber-breach/105445072 

Do not display personal information on GPT