Australians seeking to access pornography, violent content or material depicting self-harm online will soon be required to prove they are over 18 under new laws taking effect on March 9, 2026.
The eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, on Tuesday submitted an industry code that requires providers of pornographic and other high-risk content to adopt "appropriate age assurance measures," which could include identity checks, credit‑card verification or biometric age estimation. Companies that fail to comply may face civil penalties and must "take appropriate steps to test and monitor the effectiveness" of their age-assurance and access-control systems over time.
The code applies not only to web-based pornography services but also to mobile apps and platforms, including artificial-intelligence chatbots, that can present sexually explicit, violent or self-harm content to users. Inman Grant described the material the rules target as "lawful but awful," saying it is harmful to children despite being legal to share with minors in some circumstances.
The push to introduce mandatory age verification follows a government-commissioned trial last year involving industry stakeholders, which concluded that age restrictions were technically feasible in Australia and could be implemented without breaching privacy safeguards. The measures build on work begun with the eSafety Commissioner's 2023 Roadmap for Age Verification and are being implemented under the Online Safety Act 2021.
The federal government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, has been central to the reforms. In addition to backing the age-verification regime, the government passed a separate ban on social media use by children under 16, which is scheduled to come into force in December 2025.
Similar age-verification schemes have been adopted in the United Kingdom, parts of Europe and some jurisdictions in the United States. Governments and regulators in those places have reported enforcement challenges, including users attempting to circumvent checks with virtual private networks and other tools.
The Australian industry code leaves enforcement and technical standards to providers, while setting out an expectation of ongoing testing and monitoring so age-assurance systems remain effective. The eSafety Commissioner and government officials have said that providers will need to demonstrate compliance and that regulators will have powers to impose civil penalties for failures.
The code's submission starts a formal process in which industry and regulators finalise the precise compliance requirements and time frames ahead of the March 9, 2026 commencement date. Providers of online services that may present restricted content will be expected to review and, if necessary, upgrade their verification procedures to meet the new standards.
Advocates for child safety have welcomed the move as a way to limit minors' exposure to online material harmful to their development. Privacy and digital-rights groups have previously warned that some approaches to age verification can pose risks if identification data are not handled securely; proponents of the code say the requirement to monitor and test systems is intended to address such concerns.
The legislation and forthcoming industry code represent a significant step in Australian online-safety policy, aligning the country with international efforts to restrict underage access to adult material while highlighting the technical and regulatory challenges of enforcing age verification across global digital platforms.