Age Verification and Access to Adult Content

Age Verification and Access to Adult Content

From Women on the Line by Cleis Hart, Kannagi Bhatt, Phuong Tran, Xen Nhà & Scheherazade Bloul.

April 5, 2026

About this episode

The episode discusses Australia's new online safety codes for age verification and their implications for privacy and the adult content industry.

On this week’s program we look into Australia's new online safety codes requiring age verification for R-rated games and websites and the ramifications that this will have on our privacy. These new requirements, aimed to prevent children from being exposed to age-inappropriate content, raise questions about whether this will actually stop young people from accessing this content, as well as concerns regarding the online privacy of users. Furthermore, this age assurance could negatively impact the online sex work industry, exposing workers and clients to privacy and safety risks as well as creating further stigmatisation of the porn industry. To discuss these issues we speak to Lucinda Thorpe, Privacy Campaigner at Digital Rights Watch and Mish Pony, CEO of Scarlet Alliance.

People in this episode

Guests: Lucinda Thorpe, Mish Pony

Topics covered

  • age verification
  • online safety
  • privacy
  • adult content
  • sex work
  • R-rated games

Keywords

  • age verification
  • online safety
  • privacy
  • adult content
  • sex work
  • R-rated games
  • Digital Rights Watch
  • Scarlet Alliance

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Digital Rights Watch, Scarlet Alliance

Places: Australia

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