A new bill introduced to the Australian parliament (Communications Legislation Amendment (Content Services) Bill 2007) aims to increase regulation of mobile and online content, both illegal content and content inappropriate for children. “The Bill strengthens regulations of stored content and makes new rules for live interactive content such as chatrooms…The new regulations would impose restrictions similar to those on traditional media content, Ms Ley said, including age verification requirements for R18+ and MA15+ material and the banning of X18+ content” reports AAP via Courier Mail. However, the enforcement comes in the form of take-down notices issued by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, so it may not have much teeth online where a lot of the content will be hosted internationally.

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Perhaps more tricky is the approach to live chatrooms, the providers of which will need to have their service professinally assessed to determine whether its “likely content” should be restricted. How that’s going to be judged is a mystery at this point, but it will give impetus to mobile social network providers which have strong content regulation features.