Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS)
Age Assurance Technology Trial — Final Report
Corrected · 17 August 2026
What was fabricated
Fabricated and unverifiable academic citations in the “emerging technologies” chapter: DOIs resolving to nothing, DOIs pointing at a different paper than the one cited, and author/journal/year combinations matching no known publication. A separate category of defect was also found — correct articles cited that do not contain the claims attributed to them, which is misattribution rather than invention. Guardian Australia separately found FOUR citation URLs carrying a chatgpt.com source tag. NO REGULATOR OR TRIBUNAL FINDING ON AI CAUSATION FOR THE CITATIONS EXISTS. ACCS ADMITS CHATGPT WAS USED TO EDIT PROSE AND DENIES IT GENERATED THE CITATIONS.
What happened as a result
ACCS was contracted by the Australian Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts. The report has NOT been withdrawn and the responsible minister has not withdrawn her endorsement. ACCS supplied corrections which themselves contained fresh errors, including backdated access dates. Department officials told the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee the errors were “a handful” across 26 pages and attributed some to links breaking after publication, without verifying that. The report underpins Australia's under-16 social media ban.
Sources
- https://www.techtimes.com/articles/324763/20260817/chatgpt-fabricated-citations-backed-australia-social-media-ban-senate-hears.htm
- https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/australian-age-assurance-regulator-a-step-closer-to-stronger-investigatory-powers
- https://ageassurance.com.au/report/
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