Organizations within Australia’s online industries recently submitted a final draft of new industry standards to the eSafety Commissioner, which were designed to shield children from “age-inappropriate content”. The commissioner is currently evaluating its suitability for implementation under the Online Safety Act. The proposed codes aim to address young people’s exposure to pornography, high-impact violence, and content related to self-harm and disordered eating. However, experts have voiced concerns about the potential unintended consequences on sex education, sexual health information, and overall health promotion.
Social media platforms have proven to be a potent tool for disseminating sexual health information to teenagers and young adults, as the government-funded social media campaigns have been instrumental in addressing rising rates of sexual violence and sharing vital sexual health knowledge.
The eSafety Commissioner’s initiative involves introducing codes of practice for the online industry to safeguard Australians from illicit and restricted online content. These codes are slated to apply to operating systems, different internet services, search engines, and hardware like smartphones and tablets. Non-compliance by tech companies could result in substantial fines.
The Australian government has acknowledged that age-assurance technologies are not yet developed for widespread use, and digital platforms also have a documented history of inadequately managing sexual media. International human rights organizations, such as the United Nations, express concern over the use of automated content moderation to censor sex education and consensual sexual expression.
Platforms often rely on nudity and pornography detection software that is frequently biased toward heteronormative standards, and many users have resorted to “algospeak”—language designed to circumvent algorithms that might flag content as inappropriate, often involving tweaks such as emojis or altered spellings. Paradoxically, the government recognizes the influence of social media. It has allocated over A$100 million to Our Watch, an organization dedicated to preventing violence against women, for its teen-focused social media initiative, The Line. An additional A$3.5 million has been provided to the Teach Us Consent organization, which produces social media content for young people about consent, healthy relationships, pornography, and sex. Similar to the impending youth social media ban, the proposed industry codes risk undermining the government’s own initiatives to mitigate gender-based violence.
Social media platforms endeavor to differentiate health information from general sexual content, for instance, by permitting nudity in contexts like childbirth, breastfeeding, medical care, or protests. In reality, sexuality education extends beyond technical information about infections or medical care. Sexual imagery plays a significant role in promoting sexual health, and young people respond well to visual communication methods. The importance of pleasure has long been acknowledged in HIV prevention, safer sex, and violence prevention efforts.
