Movement Director Melinda Tankard Reist in the media re age assurance for porn sites

Age assurance technology could help enforce raising the age of social media access from 13 to 16

Collective Shout movement director Melinda Tankard Reist, who has been campaigning the Australian government to implement age verification for years to stop children being exposed to pornography, said while the technology was still evolving, the $6.5m trial should be commenced without delay.

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She said while it was uncertain what proof of identity may still be needed for the age verification of younger children in Australia, results of the trial could later be applied to social media access and how big tech companies can enforce access restrictions.

“Let’s just start with at least making adults demonstrate they are over 18 to access porn, and at some stage, that could be applied to social media,” she said.

“The issue is too urgent.

“Every day of delay means millions more children are exposed.

“Big tech companies have caused untold harm.”

Read the full article 'Age assurance technology could help enforce raising the age of social media access from 13 to 16' here.


Why Australian parents and experts are pushing to raise the age for social media access to 16

Melinda Tankard Reist from Collective Shout, working to stop the sexualisation and exploitation of girls and women, said children are being fed unrealistic beauty ideals, porn and graphic violence.

She said X - formerly known as Twitter - is the go to platform for young boys looking for porn.

“Children are seeing torture, beheadings, extremely degrading depictions of women and a level of violence that children are not meant to see. They are being desensitised,” Ms Tankard-Reist said.

“When it comes to boys they’re being radicalised online, fed misogyny, from the likes of Andrew Tate, and they’re sharing dangerous content with each other. They’re learning callous, brutal ideas about masculinity.”

Read the full article 'Why Australian parents and experts are pushing to raise the age for social media access to 16' here.


See also:

WIN! Gov announces commitment to age verification trial


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  • Coralie Alison
    published this page in News 2024-05-23 08:00:50 +1000

You can defend their right to childhood

A world free of sexploitation is possible!

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