David Strom
I did not know this until I ran across a post on X, but come December 27, 2025, every internet search any person makes will require Digital ID verification before it can be completed.
If the search engine provider fails to check for your ID, they face a $50 million fine. For each “breach” of the law.
Needless to say, I am pretty sure that search engines will comply with the law.
Australians will soon be subjected to mandatory age checks across the internet landscape, in what has been described as a huge and unprecedented change.
Search engines are next in line for the same controversial age-assurance technology behind the teen social media ban, and other parts of the internet are likely to follow suit.
At the end of June, Australia quietly introduced rules forcing companies such as Google and Microsoft to check the ages of logged-in users, in an effort to limit children’s access to harmful content such as pornography.
But experts have warned the move could compromise Australians’ privacy online and may not do much to protect young people.
“I have not seen anything like this anywhere else in the world,” said Lisa Given, professor of Information Sciences from RMIT, who specialises in age-assurance technology.
“As people learn about the implications of this, we will likely see people stepping up and saying, ‘Wait a minute, why wasn’t I told that this was going to happen?’”
From December 27, Google — which dominates the Australian search market with a share of more than 90 per cent — and its rival, Microsoft, will have to use some form of age-assurance technology on users when they sign in, or face fines of almost $50 million per breach.
The search results for logged-in users under the age of 18 will be filtered for pornography, high-impact violence, material promoting eating disorders and a range of other content.
Despite the apparent magnitude of the shift, it has mostly gone unnoticed, in stark contrast to the political and media fanfare surrounding the teen social media ban, which will block under-16s from major platforms using similar technology.
It’s for the children, you see. Because of course it is. Everything is for the children.
This is one more example of how privacy protections are eroding faster than a dam built of loose straw in the Anglosphere. Age restrictions on pornography, or, less convincingly, on social media, can be justified as necessary to protect children from genuinely harmful content. But requiring every search to be tied to a specific identified person is an outrageous invasion of privacy and ripe for abuse.
Starting December 27, Australians will be forced to upload government ID every time they search the web while logged in. Google, Bing—it doesn’t matter. No ID, no search.
The excuse? Protecting kids from adult content. The reality? A full-scale experiment in digital control.
– Mandatory ID uploads for all users—teenagers, seniors, everyone.
– Facial recognition or digital ID linking as the “convenient” alternative.
– No opt-out. No transparency. Just compliance.
This isn’t just about Australia. It’s a test case for global surveillance. Once the infrastructure exists, what’s stopping other governments from adopting it? Tracking searches? Censoring results? Who decides what you’re allowed to see?
If this stands, your country will be next.
The slippery slope starts here. Will you let them build it?
I almost never agree with The Guardian, but their description of how dystopian the Digital ID requirement is and how it has been slipped in through the back door is one place I can do so.
If this is the first time you’re hearing about it, you’re not alone. Despite the significance of the changes, these latest rules are the result of industry codes, which differs to regular legislation. These codes don’t go through parliament. Instead, they’re developed by the tech industry and registered by the eSafety commissioner in a process called co-regulation. On one hand, this can be good: it can allow for more flexibility or technology-specific detail that is less appropriate in legislation. On the other: it creates risk of industry co-option, and by bypassing parliamentary process, can give an enormous amount of power to an unelected official (in this case, the eSafety commissioner).
Greens senator David Shoebridge has called the implications of age verification for search engines “staggering” and noted that “these proposals don’t have to go through an elected parliament and we can’t vote them down no matter how significant concerns are. That combined with lack of public input is a serious issue.”
The age verification policy development process has been littered with blunders that make a mockery of meaningful consultation and evidence-based policy development. It is particularly striking that these codes were drafted before the completion of the government’s $6.5m trial into the efficacy of age assurance. Later, the trial’s preliminary findings conceded the technology is not guaranteed to be effective, and noted “concerning evidence” that some technology providers were seeking to collect too much personal information.
You see how they did this? Not through a law, where there are democratic checks on lawmakers, but through regulations, which are designed and implemented behind closed doors. Bureaucrats—technocrats—run our lives for their convenience.
Soon enough, the government will be able to conveniently track you across the internet without effort. Your travels will be tagged with your ID, and your search inquiries will be there for all to see.
[…]
The Most Revolutionary Act 
This makes all the former STASI and KGB information collecting look like minor events …
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It sure does, Sasjal.
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They are doing some shady shit here in the U.S. I had to stop going to the Central Library due to them closing the restrooms on floors 2-4. They are making ALL library patrons and users use the nastiest restroom located on the 1st floor across the hall from the library, proper. I was escorted out by security for loudly complaining. I was only there handing out items to the homeless. We are now handing them out across the street, but folks still need to use the restroom.
And since many homeless people use libraries to access computers, and many don’t have IDs, what use will this nonsense be to them if this is implemented? But, thankfully, many of us still got our guns. And since millions are joining the homeless, we won’t even need access to the internet. Oh, well! Just another day in hell!!!!
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Great hearing from you Shelby. Your blog has gone quiet for awhile. We live in very concerning times. I don’t know whether I should be more concerned about the deliberate efforts to destroy the food supply (by mass exterminating chickens and setting fire to meat processing plants) or the new bioweapons they are concocting to mass infect us. Thank God for the homeless. Their determination to prevail against all odds is a profound source of inspiration.
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Thanks Dr. Bramhall, but my blog has been quiet because I have been dealing with a lot of shit. You’ve read my last blogs. I have been in the hospital, multiple times trying to keep my lungs in working order, and am now, using inhalers. And since the homelessness situation has exploded even more so over here, I was using the time that I wasn’t in the hospital breathing with nebulizers and inhalers, to help the homeless. The homeless are quite resilient and those of us who are hell bent on helping them are having a hell of a time as well. But, through it all, we are insisting that as many homeless people make it as we can help to make it.
Homeless people don’t eat that much and are much healthier than housed people. So, whatever shit they are putting in our “food” supply, not many of the millions who are sitting out on the streets are eating it. So, that’s a good thing!
As you know, I don’t eat meat and I am going to continue to REFUSE those bioweapons! And the homeless damn sure aren’t getting injected. I cannot tell you how many homeless people have told me that they NEVER took those Covid bioweapons. More the healthier many of them are.
I hope to be blogging more.
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