CANBERRA, Australia—Search engines operating in Australia’s national digital space will be required to blur pornographic and violent image results starting on Dec. 27, the country’s eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, announced last week.
“We know that a high proportion of this accidental exposure happens through search engines as the primary gateway to harmful content, and once a child sees a sexually violent video, for instance, maybe of a man aggressively choking a woman during sex, they can’t cognitively process, let alone unsee that content,” Grant said.
“From 27 December, search engines have an obligation to blur image results of online pornography and extreme violence to protect children from this incidental exposure, much the same way safe search mode already operates on services like Google and Bing when enabled,” she added.
Blurred image results for age-restricted materials on search engines are a common practice used by safe search features, which parents can optionally enable. This is the latest industry guidance from the digital safety regulator. At the same time, Australia’s ban on social media for under-16s enters force on December 10.
The BBC reported earlier this month that an estimated 150,000 Facebook and 350,000 Instagram accounts belonging to under-16s are expected to be banned. She said, “These are important societal innovations that will provide greater protections for all Australians, not just children, who don‘t wish to see ‘lawful but awful’ content.”
