If you’ve ever worked with teenagers and technology you’ll know that while they might not be much interested in schoolwork, they’re geniuses at figuring out how to break rules. Just as toy manufacturers used to refer to a ‘double-military standard’ when it came to making stuff kids couldn’t break, school IT techs are in a never-ending war of attrition against teenagers’ rat cunning when it comes to getting around systems.
They’re already beating the Albanese government’s attempts to block them from social media – before the system’s even in place
Leading facial age estimation tools were easily fooled by a $22 “old man” mask, a Guy Fawkes mask, and other cheap party costumes, researchers have found.
Remember: these are the same politicians and bureaucrats who believed that 6’4”, hulking Middle Eastern men with receding hairlines were ‘children’.
From December 10, social media platforms will be forced to block under 16s in Australia from holding accounts, but experts warn age checks can be bypassed, using VPNs, AI, and a range of basic disguises.
Facial age estimation tools scan and analyse a person’s face in order to guess their age, and is one of several technologies the ban will depend on.
“Every age assurance vendor that we tested had one bypass that was easily accomplished with things that you could buy at your local $2 shop,” said Professor Shaanan Cohney from the University of Melbourne.
It took teenagers participating in the trial just 20 minutes and a few bucks’ worth of props to fool the “top-performing facial age estimation systems” – Groucho Marx glasses, screencaps of videogame characters or even just pulling silly faces.
But this is the government: everything works because they say it does. Just like every project comes in on budget and every ‘emergency measure’ is only temporary.
The government says it’s confident age assurance technology is robust and effective, citing the results of an extensive trial, which were released in full in September.
But Professor Cohney said […] “Just like every banking study shows you that the banks are secure and yet we see banking breaches and bank failures, we’d expect to see the same thing with [age assurance] providers.”
Let’s be honest, though: the facial recognition is just the motte. The bailey is an Orwellian ‘digital ID’ and Chinese-style social credit system, all rolled up into a panopticon surveillance state. For our own ‘safety’, of course. Won’t somebody please think of the children!
Other options include providing official ID such as a drivers license, and “age inference”, where platforms can guess a person’s age using existing data, such as their online behaviour.
“The fact that social media platforms can use a pick-and-mix of these different technologies, it gives us confidence,” said the Communications Minister Annika Wells last month.
In inverse proportion to Australians’ confidence in the idea of the government spying on everything they do.
The government is also preparing to assault what has become a basic tool for online privacy: VPNs. VPN downloads surged after the Starmer government whacked Britons with their government spyware, dubbed the “Online Safety Act”, which is as much about safety as Orwell’s Minitrue was about truth.
One in three Australians already use VPNs and 74 per cent are aware of the technology, according to a survey by one of the major VPN providers, NordVPN.
The company said it’s expecting a surge in Australian users, come December.
“Whenever a government announces an increase in surveillance, internet restrictions, or other types of constraints, people turn to privacy tools,” said a spokeswoman for NordVPN, Laura Tyrylyte.
And count down to the Albanese government trying to ban it.
The eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant says under the Australian scheme, platforms will be expected to monitor for VPN use and put solutions in place.
We all know what that means.
