Australia Censorship News

Australia's federal government is looking to bring on board credit card company Mastercard as part of its move toward developing a digital identity and age verification system for porn viewing.

Mastercard announced that it has joined into a new partnership with the Digital Transformation Agency and is seeking accreditation to become a digital identity service provider. It said it was looking to offer ways for the federal government to achieve an online age verification system.

But privacy experts are warning the government needed to pull the brakes on implementing without input from tech experts and the wider community.

Digital rights expert from Electronic Frontiers Australia Justin Warren said past experience had shown the government often began consultations long after plans had been drawn up. He added that it was important users be given options to protect their privacy.

A publisher can be held responsible for defamatory comments readers leave on its Facebook pages, the Australian High Court has ruled, in a decision that could have far-reaching consequences for social media users throughout Australia.

This decision may mean anyone who runs a social media page can theoretically be sued over disparaging comments posted by readers or random group members -- even if you aren't aware of the comment.

In other words, if you post content on your social media page and encourage or invite comments -- and people post defamatory comments there -- you're legally the publisher of those comments and can be sued, thanks to today's ruling.

The case focused on Facebook but the implications are not Facebook-specific. It can apply equally to Twitter, Instagram, and other social media too -- or websites (such as The Conversation) that have comments sections.

Facebook and Instagram page administrators can turn off comments altogether, and Twitter allows you to restrict comments so only certain people can post to it.

The ruling may inspire many social media account managers to make greater use of these features and tightly restrict comments -- or, where possible, switch them off completely.

Interspecies Reviewers is a 2020 Japan anime comedy romance TV series
Starring Junji Majima, Yûsuke Kobayashi and Miyu Tomita

From elves to succubi to fairies and more, Our heroes: Stunk, a human, Zel, an elf and a hermaphrodite angel named Crimvael are here to rate the red-light delights of all manner of monster girls

The video was banned by the Australian Censorship Board on 17th August 2021. The censors explained:

The film is classified RC in accordance with the National Classification Code, Films Table, 1. (b) as films that depict in a way that is likely to cause offence to a reasonable adult, a person who is, or appears to be, a child under 18 (whether the person is engaged in sexual activity or not).

Australia's newly appointed internet censor has opened consultations on a range of new measures to implement age verification for mainstream 18 rated movies and also for online porn.

A recently passed censorship law requires content deemed to be R18+ or higher to be behind a restricted access system so it cannot be accessed by children.

Julie Inman-Grant, the Australian eSafety Commissioner announced a plan that will look at technological approaches for online age verification, and comes just months after the federal government agreed in principle to use its digital identity scheme to verify the ages of individuals before they access online pornographic or gambling sites. The plan suggests that will be no action to implement this until 2023.

The current consultation will close on 12 September.

The new age verification requirements will not be limited to material hosted or provided in Australia, but will cover commercially produced and user-generated sexually explicit material being accessed by Australians.

Last week the eSafety Commissioner also opened consultations on the Basic Online Safety Expectations (BOSE) for large social media firms like Facebook, outlining core and additional expectations around the cyberbullying of children and cyber-abuse of adults.

Crysis 3 is a 2013 first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek and published in 2013 by Electronic Arts

The 2021 re-mastered trilogy release has been cut in Australia to obtain an MA15+ rating.

The re-mastered game was originally passed R18+ uncut in 2021 but the distributors preferred a cut MA15+ rated release.

The cuts were to remove scenes depicting drug use.