Australia Requires Search Engines to Prevent Dissemination of AI Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material

Australian e-Safety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant (left) (Photo: @eSafetyOffice).

JAKARTA - Australia is now requiring search engines like Google and Bing to take steps to prevent attempts to share artificial intelligence-generated child sex abuse material. This was announced by the country's internet regulator on Friday, September 8.

"A new code drafted by an industry giant at the request of the government will require search engines to ensure that such content does not appear in search results," e-Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a statement, citing Reuters.

In addition, the code will also require that artificial intelligence functions integrated into search engines cannot generate synthetic versions of the same content. Synthetic versions of this material are also known as deepfakes.

"The use of generative artificial intelligence has progressed so rapidly that I think it has taken the whole world by surprise to a certain degree," said Inman Grant.

This code is an example of how the regulatory and legal landscape around internet platforms is being transformed by the explosion of products that automatically generate real-life content.

Inman Grant said that previous code compiled by Google, which is owned by Alphabet, and Bing, which is owned by Microsoft, did not include content generated by artificial intelligence, so he asked them to redo it from scratch.

"When the biggest players in the industry announced that they would integrate generative artificial intelligence into their search functions, we had draft code that was clearly no longer fit for purpose. We asked the industry to try again," added Inman Grant.

Google and Microsoft did not immediately comment on the request.

This year, the regulator has registered security codes for several other internet services such as social media, smartphone applications and device providers. The codes will come into effect at the end of 2023.

The regulator is still working to develop security codes relating to internet storage and private messaging services, which have faced resistance from privacy advocates around the world.