On 25 July, the UK widely became one of the first countries to apply age verification. Its online security act requires hosting porn and other materials, which is considered “harmful” – including reddit, discord, grindr, x, and bloody – to verify that users are over 18 years of age. Initial results are chaotic. While many services have complied, some have pulled out the country instead of facing risk and expenses. Users have cheated the verification tool or bypass them with VPN. It is only the taste of issues that can withstand many other countries because they launch their own system, and this is a situation that has long warned by privacy and security experts – for very little profit.
After one year political push to make the Internet safe for children, age verification has started leaking into online places worldwide. MPs in the US, Europe, Australia and other places have passed all age-gating rules, and have begun to follow the platforms. Possible methods for verification are similar to those in the UK. The platforms usually ask users to either enter the payment card, upload the ID issued by the government, take a selfie, or to “guess” to use a platform to use their data (eg account construction date and user connection). Most rely on third-party services: Kids owned by Blussky Epic game uses web services; Reddit is working with personality; And the discord has participated with K -id.
The result so far is a classification of online services handling a “privacy nightmares”, a “privacy nightmare”, a result of senior policy advocate Kodi Wenzke at the US Civil Liberty Union. “There is no standardization of how age verification should be.”
Some age verification platforms promise to erase your data after a certain period, such as a seven -day person says it will keep the information used to verify your age on reddit. But there is no guarantee that every service will do this, and still large scale security risks are given. How common is Data have become violations. Last year, a security researcher found that a identity verification solution used by AU10TIX – Tiktok, Uber, and X – Left user information and driver’s license exposed to photo months, 404 media Informed,
Governments are plowing towards the future of an age-gate internet
“While uploading your ID … you are handing it to a third party,” Venzke says. “You are going to take their word that they are going to remove it or are going to remove it after it is removed.”
Despite these potential damage, governments are plowing towards the future of an age-gate internet anyway. In addition to a crack in the UK, the European Union is obstructing a broad rollout of digital ID, Australia is an age-gating search engineAnd users in many American states require IDs to reach porn sites.
Age verification had long been seen as unconstitutional in the US, but the Supreme Court overturned the earlier example in 2025, concluding that “adults have no first amendment right to avoid age verification” if it is to reduce less users from “porn” content. Several states including Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kentki, Northern Carolina and Texas have implemented laws requiring verification measures on adult websites. Some have tried to expand it as a whole in social media or app stores, but so far, they have failed – the cases filed by Google, Meta, X, Amazon, Discord and other technical giants supported by a technology business group leader Chouthis supported by Chinese, have successfully blocked the bills in California. Arkansas, Georgia, OhioAnd Florida,
In the UK, states with age verification laws have no guarantee against privacy and security violations, and this wife of rules has very little standardization. Efforts in America also match Increase in government digital surveillance And Efforts to declare LGBTQs increase the risk of submitting individual data further, such as drag shows, such as drag shows, as porn.
All age verification efforts handed over the privacy of the users to the third-party services with hosting different ways. The European Union is not only testing age-gating requirements, but is also a government-related digital ID. It has started testing an age verification system prototype. Designed to “bridge the gap” Before the end of next year before the digital ID arrives. The solution will allow users to upload their passport or government ID cards into the system -manufactured system, which then generates “proof of age verification” that is passed to the sites. Can also do sites Use customer identification methods Planned by banks and mobile carriers. The goal is that users can upload sensitive information to a single system that can be conducted for high privacy standard and is simple to use sites.
Although having a centralized age verification solution, users can be prevented from passing their information through multiple verification services, but there are lots of questions about monitoring and access. In addition to the sometimes the probability of data violations, digital IDs can also ban unwarded individuals from reaching online content. And, without proper safety measures, the digital identification system can still be “phone home” for the ID issuer when the user age is verified, potentially allows providers to track online activity.
Alexis Hancock, director of engineering at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), says, “If I pull my ID at the liquor store, DMV does not know, but with a digital identity, there is a capacity for it,” Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is called Alexis Hankocock.
Below the line, the European Union states that it is planning to increase the structure with a technology called zero-knowledge proof (ZKP). This is a cryptographic verification method that allows a service to prove a service right or wrong to prove anything without revealing any additional information, as EFF mentioned by EFFThis means that an app can verify that a user is over 18 years of age, without disclosing his accurate date of birth. Google is already Created a ZKP system Google is in wallet and since Open-sources technologyWhich is encouraging members of the European Union to adopt.
Even with ZKP, Hancock says that there are still concerns what site and apps can ask for information about the user’s age. Hancock says, “I have not promised anything from far away that actually reels in verifier especially.” “There is not much scope ban on who can actually ask for this and if it is also needed in some cases.”
MPs and regulators have argued that there are huge benefits to protect children from harmful materials or exploitative social media platforms. Melani Daves, CEO of the UK Communications Regulatory Chief Executive Officer, claimed that “preference to children’s online security and involvement will no longer be tolerated in the UK,” and American MPs and regulators have declared porn and social media a public health crisis. “The Commonance Guardril, who protects our children from social media threats, is important for their future and the future of America,” Sen Katie Brit said. Announcement About the children of the Social Media Act.
It is important to keep children safe online, it ignores messaging downplay or ripple effects. Right now, there is no clear way to verify anyone’s age online without leakage of personal information or obstructing access to the Internet. As long as the MPs stop and think about the big picture, everyone’s privacy is going to be at risk.
