6 Sources
[1]
Online age checks are proliferating, but so are concerns they curtail internet freedom
Online age checks are on the rise in the U.S. and elsewhere, asking people for IDs or face scans to prove they are over 18 or 21 or even 13. To proponents, they're a tool to keep children away from adult websites and other material that might be harmful to them. But opponents see a worrisome trend toward a less secure, less private and less free internet, where people can be denied access not just to pornography but news, health information and the ability to speak openly and anonymously. "I think that many of these laws come from a place of good intentions," said Jennifer Huddleston, a senior technology policy fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "Certainly we all want to protect young people from harmful content before they're ready to see it." More than 20 states have passed some kind of age verification law, though many face legal challenges. While no such law exists on the federal level in the United States, the Supreme Court recently allowed a Mississippi age check law for social media to stand. In June, the court upheld a Texas law aimed at preventing minors from watching pornography online, ruling that adults don't have a First Amendment right to access obscene speech without first proving their age. Elsewhere, the United Kingdom now requires users visiting websites that allow pornography to verify their age. Beyond adult sites, platforms like Reddit, X, Telegram and Bluesky have also committed to age checks. France and several other European Union countries also are testing a government sponsored verification app. And Australia has banned children under 16 from accessing social media. "Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in November. The platforms have a year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced. To critics, though, age check laws raise "significant privacy and speech concerns, not only for young people themselves, but also for all users of the internet," Huddleston said. "Because the only way to make sure that we are age verifying anyone under the age of 18 is to also age verify everyone over the age 18. And that could have significant impacts on the speech and privacy rights of adults." The state laws are a hodgepodge of requirements, but they generally fall into two camps. On one side are laws -- as seen in Louisiana and Texas -- that require websites comprised of more than 33% of adult content to verify users' ages or face fines. Then there are laws -- enacted in Wyoming or South Dakota -- that seek to regulate sites that have any material that is considered obscene or otherwise harmful to minors. What's considered harmful to minors can be subjective, and this is where experts believe such laws run afoul of the First Amendment. It means people may be required to verify their ages to access anything, from Netflix to a neighborhood blog. "In places like Australia and the U.K., there is already a split happening between the internet that people who are willing to identify themselves or go through age verification can see and the rest of the internet. And that's historically a very dangerous place for us to end up," said Jason Kelley, activism director at the nonprofit digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation. What's behind the gates is determined by a "hundred different decision-makers," Kelley said, from politicians to tech platforms to judges to individuals who have sued because they believe that a piece of content is dangerous. While many companies are complying, verifying users' ages can prove a burden, especially for smaller platforms. On Friday, Bluesky said it will no longer be available in Mississippi because of its age verification requirements. While the social platform already does age verification in the U.K., it said Mississippi's approach "would fundamentally change how users access Bluesky." That's because it requires every user to undergo an age check, not just those who want to access adult content. It would also require Bluesky to identify and track users that are children. "We think this law creates challenges that go beyond its child safety goals, and creates significant barriers that limit free speech and disproportionately harm smaller platforms," the company said in a blog post. Some websites and social media companies, such as Instagram's parent company Meta, have argued that age verification should be done by app store owners, such as Apple and Google, and not individual platforms. This would mean that app stores need to verify their users' ages before they allow them to download apps. Unsurprisingly, Apple and Google disagree. "Billed as 'simple' by its backers, including Meta, this proposal fails to cover desktop computers or other devices that are commonly shared within families. It also could be ineffective against pre-installed apps," Google said in a blog post. Nonetheless, a growing number of tech companies are implementing verification systems to comply with regulations or ward off criticism that they are not protecting children. This includes Google, which recently started testing a new age-verification system for YouTube that relies on AI to differentiate between adults and minors based on their watch histories. Instagram is testing a similar AI system to determine if kids are lying about their ages. Roblox, which was sued by the Louisiana attorney general on claims it doesn't do enough to protect children from predators, requires users who want to access certain games rated for those over 17 to submit a photo ID and undergo a face scan for verification. Roblox has also recently begun requiring age verification for teens who want to chat more freely on platform. Face scans that promise to estimate a person's age may address some of the concerns around IDs, but they can be unreliable. Can AI accurately tell, for instance, if someone is 17.5 or just turned 18? "Sometimes it's less accurate for women or it's less accurate for certain racial or ethnic groups or for certain physical characteristics that then may mean that those people have to go through additional privacy invasive screenings to prove that they are of a certain age," Huddleston said. While IDs are a common way of verifying someone's age, the method raises security concerns: What happens if companies don't delete the uploaded files, for instance? Case in point: the recent data breaches at Tea, an app for women to anonymously warn each other about the men they date, speak to some of these concerns. The app requires women who sign up to upload an ID or undergo a scan to prove that they are women. Tea wasn't supposed to keep the files but it did, and stored them in a way that allowed hackers to not only access the images, but also their private messages.
[2]
Online age checks are proliferating, but so are concerns they curtail internet freedom
Online age checks are on the rise in the U.S. and elsewhere, asking people for IDs or face scans to prove they are over 18 or 21 or even 13 Online age checks are on the rise in the U.S. and elsewhere, asking people for IDs or face scans to prove they are over 18 or 21 or even 13. To proponents, they're a tool to keep children away from adult websites and other material that might be harmful to them. But opponents see a worrisome trend toward a less secure, less private and less free internet, where people can be denied access not just to pornography but news, health information and the ability to speak openly and anonymously. "I think that many of these laws come from a place of good intentions," said Jennifer Huddleston, a senior technology policy fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "Certainly we all want to protect young people from harmful content before they're ready to see it." More than 20 states have passed some kind of age verification law, though many face legal challenges. While no such law exists on the federal level in the United States, the Supreme Court recently allowed a Mississippi age check law for social media to stand. In June, the court upheld a Texas law aimed at preventing minors from watching pornography online, ruling that adults don't have a First Amendment right to access obscene speech without first proving their age. Elsewhere, the United Kingdom now requires users visiting websites that allow pornography to verify their age. Beyond adult sites, platforms like Reddit, X, Telegram and Bluesky have also committed to age checks. France and several other European Union countries also are testing a government sponsored verification app. And Australia has banned children under 16 from accessing social media. "Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in November. The platforms have a year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced. To critics, though, age check laws raise "significant privacy and speech concerns, not only for young people themselves, but also for all users of the internet," Huddleston said. "Because the only way to make sure that we are age verifying anyone under the age of 18 is to also age verify everyone over the age 18. And that could have significant impacts on the speech and privacy rights of adults." The state laws are a hodgepodge of requirements, but they generally fall into two camps. On one side are laws -- as seen in Louisiana and Texas -- that require websites comprised of more than 33% of adult content to verify users' ages or face fines. Then there are laws -- enacted in Wyoming or South Dakota -- that seek to regulate sites that have any material that is considered obscene or otherwise harmful to minors. What's considered harmful to minors can be subjective, and this is where experts believe such laws run afoul of the First Amendment. It means people may be required to verify their ages to access anything, from Netflix to a neighborhood blog. "In places like Australia and the U.K., there is already a split happening between the internet that people who are willing to identify themselves or go through age verification can see and the rest of the internet. And that's historically a very dangerous place for us to end up," said Jason Kelley, activism director at the nonprofit digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation. What's behind the gates is determined by a "hundred different decision-makers," Kelley said, from politicians to tech platforms to judges to individuals who have sued because they believe that a piece of content is dangerous. While many companies are complying, verifying users' ages can prove a burden, especially for smaller platforms. On Friday, Bluesky said it will no longer be available in Mississippi because of its age verification requirements. While the social platform already does age verification in the U.K., it said Mississippi's approach "would fundamentally change how users access Bluesky." That's because it requires every user to undergo an age check, not just those who want to access adult content. It would also require Bluesky to identify and track users that are children. "We think this law creates challenges that go beyond its child safety goals, and creates significant barriers that limit free speech and disproportionately harm smaller platforms," the company said in a blog post. Some websites and social media companies, such as Instagram's parent company Meta, have argued that age verification should be done by app store owners, such as Apple and Google, and not individual platforms. This would mean that app stores need to verify their users' ages before they allow them to download apps. Unsurprisingly, Apple and Google disagree. "Billed as 'simple' by its backers, including Meta, this proposal fails to cover desktop computers or other devices that are commonly shared within families. It also could be ineffective against pre-installed apps," Google said in a blog post. Nonetheless, a growing number of tech companies are implementing verification systems to comply with regulations or ward off criticism that they are not protecting children. This includes Google, which recently started testing a new age-verification system for YouTube that relies on AI to differentiate between adults and minors based on their watch histories. Instagram is testing a similar AI system to determine if kids are lying about their ages. Roblox, which was sued by the Louisiana attorney general on claims it doesn't do enough to protect children from predators, requires users who want to access certain games rated for those over 17 to submit a photo ID and undergo a face scan for verification. Roblox has also recently begun requiring age verification for teens who want to chat more freely on platform. Face scans that promise to estimate a person's age may address some of the concerns around IDs, but they can be unreliable. Can AI accurately tell, for instance, if someone is 17.5 or just turned 18? "Sometimes it's less accurate for women or it's less accurate for certain racial or ethnic groups or for certain physical characteristics that then may mean that those people have to go through additional privacy invasive screenings to prove that they are of a certain age," Huddleston said. While IDs are a common way of verifying someone's age, the method raises security concerns: What happens if companies don't delete the uploaded files, for instance? Case in point: the recent data breaches at Tea, an app for women to anonymously warn each other about the men they date, speak to some of these concerns. The app requires women who sign up to upload an ID or undergo a scan to prove that they are women. Tea wasn't supposed to keep the files but it did, and stored them in a way that allowed hackers to not only access the images, but also their private messages.
[3]
Online age checks are proliferating, but so are concerns they curtail internet freedom
Online age checks are on the rise in the U.S. and elsewhere, asking people for IDs or face scans to prove they are over 18 or 21 or even 13. To proponents, they're a tool to keep children away from adult websites and other material that might be harmful to them. But opponents see a worrisome trend toward a less secure, less private and less free internet, where people can be denied access not just to pornography but news, health information and the ability to speak openly and anonymously. "I think that many of these laws come from a place of good intentions," said Jennifer Huddleston, a senior technology policy fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "Certainly we all want to protect young people from harmful content before they're ready to see it." More than 20 states have passed some kind of age verification law, though many face legal challenges. While no such law exists on the federal level in the United States, the Supreme Court recently allowed a Mississippi age check law for social media to stand. In June, the court upheld a Texas law aimed at preventing minors from watching pornography online, ruling that adults don't have a First Amendment right to access obscene speech without first proving their age. Elsewhere, the United Kingdom now requires users visiting websites that allow pornography to verify their age. Beyond adult sites, platforms like Reddit, X, Telegram and Bluesky have also committed to age checks. France and several other European Union countries also are testing a government sponsored verification app. And Australia has banned children under 16 from accessing social media. "Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in November. The platforms have a year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced. To critics, though, age check laws raise "significant privacy and speech concerns, not only for young people themselves, but also for all users of the internet," Huddleston said. "Because the only way to make sure that we are age verifying anyone under the age of 18 is to also age verify everyone over the age 18. And that could have significant impacts on the speech and privacy rights of adults." The state laws are a hodgepodge of requirements, but they generally fall into two camps. On one side are laws -- as seen in Louisiana and Texas -- that require websites comprised of more than 33% of adult content to verify users' ages or face fines. Then there are laws -- enacted in Wyoming or South Dakota -- that seek to regulate sites that have any material that is considered obscene or otherwise harmful to minors. What's considered harmful to minors can be subjective, and this is where experts believe such laws run afoul of the First Amendment. It means people may be required to verify their ages to access anything, from Netflix to a neighborhood blog. "In places like Australia and the U.K., there is already a split happening between the internet that people who are willing to identify themselves or go through age verification can see and the rest of the internet. And that's historically a very dangerous place for us to end up," said Jason Kelley, activism director at the nonprofit digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation. What's behind the gates is determined by a "hundred different decision-makers," Kelley said, from politicians to tech platforms to judges to individuals who have sued because they believe that a piece of content is dangerous. While many companies are complying, verifying users' ages can prove a burden, especially for smaller platforms. On Friday, Bluesky said it will no longer be available in Mississippi because of its age verification requirements. While the social platform already does age verification in the U.K., it said Mississippi's approach "would fundamentally change how users access Bluesky." That's because it requires every user to undergo an age check, not just those who want to access adult content. It would also require Bluesky to identify and track users that are children. "We think this law creates challenges that go beyond its child safety goals, and creates significant barriers that limit free speech and disproportionately harm smaller platforms," the company said in a blog post. Some websites and social media companies, such as Instagram's parent company Meta, have argued that age verification should be done by app store owners, such as Apple and Google, and not individual platforms. This would mean that app stores need to verify their users' ages before they allow them to download apps. Unsurprisingly, Apple and Google disagree. "Billed as 'simple' by its backers, including Meta, this proposal fails to cover desktop computers or other devices that are commonly shared within families. It also could be ineffective against pre-installed apps," Google said in a blog post. Nonetheless, a growing number of tech companies are implementing verification systems to comply with regulations or ward off criticism that they are not protecting children. This includes Google, which recently started testing a new age-verification system for YouTube that relies on AI to differentiate between adults and minors based on their watch histories. Instagram is testing a similar AI system to determine if kids are lying about their ages. Roblox, which was sued by the Louisiana attorney general on claims it doesn't do enough to protect children from predators, requires users who want to access certain games rated for those over 17 to submit a photo ID and undergo a face scan for verification. Roblox has also recently begun requiring age verification for teens who want to chat more freely on platform. Face scans that promise to estimate a person's age may address some of the concerns around IDs, but they can be unreliable. Can AI accurately tell, for instance, if someone is 17.5 or just turned 18? "Sometimes it's less accurate for women or it's less accurate for certain racial or ethnic groups or for certain physical characteristics that then may mean that those people have to go through additional privacy invasive screenings to prove that they are of a certain age," Huddleston said. While IDs are a common way of verifying someone's age, the method raises security concerns: What happens if companies don't delete the uploaded files, for instance? Case in point: the recent data breaches at Tea, an app for women to anonymously warn each other about the men they date, speak to some of these concerns. The app requires women who sign up to upload an ID or undergo a scan to prove that they are women. Tea wasn't supposed to keep the files but it did, and stored them in a way that allowed hackers to not only access the images, but also their private messages.
[4]
Online age checks proliferating, but so are concerns they curtail internet freedom
Online age checks are on the rise in the U.S. and elsewhere, asking people for IDs or face scans to prove they are over 18 or 21 or even 13 Online age checks are on the rise in the U.S. and elsewhere, asking people for IDs or face scans to prove they are over 18 or 21 or even 13. To proponents, they're a tool to keep children away from adult websites and other material that might be harmful to them. But opponents see a worrisome trend toward a less secure, less private and less free internet, where people can be denied access not just to pornography but news, health information and the ability to speak openly and anonymously. "I think that many of these laws come from a place of good intentions," said Jennifer Huddleston, a senior technology policy fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "Certainly we all want to protect young people from harmful content before they're ready to see it." More than 20 states have passed some kind of age verification law, though many face legal challenges. While no such law exists on the federal level in the United States, the Supreme Court recently allowed a Mississippi age check law for social media to stand. In June, the court upheld a Texas law aimed at preventing minors from watching pornography online, ruling that adults don't have a First Amendment right to access obscene speech without first proving their age. Elsewhere, the United Kingdom now requires users visiting websites that allow pornography to verify their age. Beyond adult sites, platforms like Reddit, X, Telegram and Bluesky have also committed to age checks. France and several other European Union countries also are testing a government sponsored verification app. And Australia has banned children under 16 from accessing social media. "Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in November. The platforms have a year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced. To critics, though, age check laws raise "significant privacy and speech concerns, not only for young people themselves, but also for all users of the internet," Huddleston said. "Because the only way to make sure that we are age verifying anyone under the age of 18 is to also age verify everyone over the age 18. And that could have significant impacts on the speech and privacy rights of adults." The state laws are a hodgepodge of requirements, but they generally fall into two camps. On one side are laws -- as seen in Louisiana and Texas -- that require websites comprised of more than 33% of adult content to verify users' ages or face fines. Then there are laws -- enacted in Wyoming or South Dakota -- that seek to regulate sites that have any material that is considered obscene or otherwise harmful to minors. What's considered harmful to minors can be subjective, and this is where experts believe such laws run afoul of the First Amendment. It means people may be required to verify their ages to access anything, from Netflix to a neighborhood blog. "In places like Australia and the U.K., there is already a split happening between the internet that people who are willing to identify themselves or go through age verification can see and the rest of the internet. And that's historically a very dangerous place for us to end up," said Jason Kelley, activism director at the nonprofit digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation. What's behind the gates is determined by a "hundred different decision-makers," Kelley said, from politicians to tech platforms to judges to individuals who have sued because they believe that a piece of content is dangerous. While many companies are complying, verifying users' ages can prove a burden, especially for smaller platforms. On Friday, Bluesky said it will no longer be available in Mississippi because of its age verification requirements. While the social platform already does age verification in the U.K., it said Mississippi's approach "would fundamentally change how users access Bluesky." That's because it requires every user to undergo an age check, not just those who want to access adult content. It would also require Bluesky to identify and track users that are children. "We think this law creates challenges that go beyond its child safety goals, and creates significant barriers that limit free speech and disproportionately harm smaller platforms," the company said in a blog post. Some websites and social media companies, such as Instagram's parent company Meta, have argued that age verification should be done by app store owners, such as Apple and Google, and not individual platforms. This would mean that app stores need to verify their users' ages before they allow them to download apps. Unsurprisingly, Apple and Google disagree. "Billed as 'simple' by its backers, including Meta, this proposal fails to cover desktop computers or other devices that are commonly shared within families. It also could be ineffective against pre-installed apps," Google said in a blog post. Nonetheless, a growing number of tech companies are implementing verification systems to comply with regulations or ward off criticism that they are not protecting children. This includes Google, which recently started testing a new age-verification system for YouTube that relies on AI to differentiate between adults and minors based on their watch histories. Instagram is testing a similar AI system to determine if kids are lying about their ages. Roblox, which was sued by the Louisiana attorney general on claims it doesn't do enough to protect children from predators, requires users who want to access certain games rated for those over 17 to submit a photo ID and undergo a face scan for verification. Roblox has also recently begun requiring age verification for teens who want to chat more freely on platform. Face scans that promise to estimate a person's age may address some of the concerns around IDs, but they can be unreliable. Can AI accurately tell, for instance, if someone is 17.5 or just turned 18? "Sometimes it's less accurate for women or it's less accurate for certain racial or ethnic groups or for certain physical characteristics that then may mean that those people have to go through additional privacy invasive screenings to prove that they are of a certain age," Huddleston said. While IDs are a common way of verifying someone's age, the method raises security concerns: What happens if companies don't delete the uploaded files, for instance? Case in point: the recent data breaches at Tea, an app for women to anonymously warn each other about the men they date, speak to some of these concerns. The app requires women who sign up to upload an ID or undergo a scan to prove that they are women. Tea wasn't supposed to keep the files but it did, and stored them in a way that allowed hackers to not only access the images, but also their private messages.
[5]
Online Age Checks Are Proliferating, but So Are Concerns They Curtail Internet Freedom
Online age checks are on the rise in the U.S. and elsewhere, asking people for IDs or face scans to prove they are over 18 or 21 or even 13. To proponents, they're a tool to keep children away from adult websites and other material that might be harmful to them. But opponents see a worrisome trend toward a less secure, less private and less free internet, where people can be denied access not just to pornography but news, health information and the ability to speak openly and anonymously. "I think that many of these laws come from a place of good intentions," said Jennifer Huddleston, a senior technology policy fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "Certainly we all want to protect young people from harmful content before they're ready to see it." More than 20 states have passed some kind of age verification law, though many face legal challenges. While no such law exists on the federal level in the United States, the Supreme Court recently allowed a Mississippi age check law for social media to stand. In June, the court upheld a Texas law aimed at preventing minors from watching pornography online, ruling that adults don't have a First Amendment right to access obscene speech without first proving their age. Elsewhere, the United Kingdom now requires users visiting websites that allow pornography to verify their age. Beyond adult sites, platforms like Reddit, X, Telegram and Bluesky have also committed to age checks. France and several other European Union countries also are testing a government sponsored verification app. And Australia has banned children under 16 from accessing social media. "Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in November. The platforms have a year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced. To critics, though, age check laws raise "significant privacy and speech concerns, not only for young people themselves, but also for all users of the internet," Huddleston said. "Because the only way to make sure that we are age verifying anyone under the age of 18 is to also age verify everyone over the age 18. And that could have significant impacts on the speech and privacy rights of adults." The state laws are a hodgepodge of requirements, but they generally fall into two camps. On one side are laws -- as seen in Louisiana and Texas -- that require websites comprised of more than 33% of adult content to verify users' ages or face fines. Then there are laws -- enacted in Wyoming or South Dakota -- that seek to regulate sites that have any material that is considered obscene or otherwise harmful to minors. What's considered harmful to minors can be subjective, and this is where experts believe such laws run afoul of the First Amendment. It means people may be required to verify their ages to access anything, from Netflix to a neighborhood blog. "In places like Australia and the U.K., there is already a split happening between the internet that people who are willing to identify themselves or go through age verification can see and the rest of the internet. And that's historically a very dangerous place for us to end up," said Jason Kelley, activism director at the nonprofit digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation. What's behind the gates is determined by a "hundred different decision-makers," Kelley said, from politicians to tech platforms to judges to individuals who have sued because they believe that a piece of content is dangerous. While many companies are complying, verifying users' ages can prove a burden, especially for smaller platforms. On Friday, Bluesky said it will no longer be available in Mississippi because of its age verification requirements. While the social platform already does age verification in the U.K., it said Mississippi's approach "would fundamentally change how users access Bluesky." That's because it requires every user to undergo an age check, not just those who want to access adult content. It would also require Bluesky to identify and track users that are children. "We think this law creates challenges that go beyond its child safety goals, and creates significant barriers that limit free speech and disproportionately harm smaller platforms," the company said in a blog post. Some websites and social media companies, such as Instagram's parent company Meta, have argued that age verification should be done by app store owners, such as Apple and Google, and not individual platforms. This would mean that app stores need to verify their users' ages before they allow them to download apps. Unsurprisingly, Apple and Google disagree. "Billed as 'simple' by its backers, including Meta, this proposal fails to cover desktop computers or other devices that are commonly shared within families. It also could be ineffective against pre-installed apps," Google said in a blog post. Nonetheless, a growing number of tech companies are implementing verification systems to comply with regulations or ward off criticism that they are not protecting children. This includes Google, which recently started testing a new age-verification system for YouTube that relies on AI to differentiate between adults and minors based on their watch histories. Instagram is testing a similar AI system to determine if kids are lying about their ages. Roblox, which was sued by the Louisiana attorney general on claims it doesn't do enough to protect children from predators, requires users who want to access certain games rated for those over 17 to submit a photo ID and undergo a face scan for verification. Roblox has also recently begun requiring age verification for teens who want to chat more freely on platform. Face scans that promise to estimate a person's age may address some of the concerns around IDs, but they can be unreliable. Can AI accurately tell, for instance, if someone is 17.5 or just turned 18? "Sometimes it's less accurate for women or it's less accurate for certain racial or ethnic groups or for certain physical characteristics that then may mean that those people have to go through additional privacy invasive screenings to prove that they are of a certain age," Huddleston said. While IDs are a common way of verifying someone's age, the method raises security concerns: What happens if companies don't delete the uploaded files, for instance? Case in point: the recent data breaches at Tea, an app for women to anonymously warn each other about the men they date, speak to some of these concerns. The app requires women who sign up to upload an ID or undergo a scan to prove that they are women. Tea wasn't supposed to keep the files but it did, and stored them in a way that allowed hackers to not only access the images, but also their private messages.
[6]
Online age checks proliferating, but so are concerns they curtail internet freedom
Age verification measures are increasing online, aiming to protect children from harmful content. These checks, involving IDs and face scans, raise privacy and free speech concerns for all users. While proponents see them as essential for child safety, critics worry about potential misuse and restrictions on access to information and anonymous expression, leading to a fragmented internet. Online age checks are on the rise in the US and elsewhere, asking people for IDs or face scans to prove they are over 18 or 21 or even 13. To proponents, they're a tool to keep children away from adult websites and other material that might be harmful to them. But opponents see a worrisome trend toward a less secure, less private and less free internet, where people can be denied access not just to pornography but news, health information and the ability to speak openly and anonymously. "I think that many of these laws come from a place of good intentions," said Jennifer Huddleston, a senior technology policy fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "Certainly we all want to protect young people from harmful content before they're ready to see it." More than 20 states have passed some kind of age verification law, though many face legal challenges. While no such law exists on the federal level in the United States, the Supreme Court recently allowed a Mississippi age check law for social media to stand. In June, the court upheld a Texas law aimed at preventing minors from watching pornography online, ruling that adults don't have a First Amendment right to access obscene speech without first proving their age. Elsewhere, the United Kingdom now requires users visiting websites that allow pornography to verify their age. Beyond adult sites, platforms like Reddit, X, Telegram and Bluesky have also committed to age checks. France and several other European Union countries also are testing a government sponsored verification app. And Australia has banned children under 16 from accessing social media. "Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in November. The platforms have a year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced. To critics, though, age check laws raise "significant privacy and speech concerns, not only for young people themselves, but also for all users of the internet," Huddleston said. "Because the only way to make sure that we are age verifying anyone under the age of 18 is to also age verify everyone over the age 18. And that could have significant impacts on the speech and privacy rights of adults." The state laws are a hodgepodge of requirements, but they generally fall into two camps. On one side are laws - as seen in Louisiana and Texas - that require websites comprised of more than 33% of adult content to verify users' ages or face fines. Then there are laws - enacted in Wyoming or South Dakota - that seek to regulate sites that have any material that is considered obscene or otherwise harmful to minors. What's considered harmful to minors can be subjective, and this is where experts believe such laws run afoul of the First Amendment. It means people may be required to verify their ages to access anything, from Netflix to a neighbourhood blog. "In places like Australia and the UK, there is already a split happening between the internet that people who are willing to identify themselves or go through age verification can see and the rest of the internet. And that's historically a very dangerous place for us to end up," said Jason Kelley, activism director at the nonprofit digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation. What's behind the gates is determined by a "hundred different decision-makers," Kelley said, from politicians to tech platforms to judges to individuals who have sued because they believe that a piece of content is dangerous. While many companies are complying, verifying users' ages can prove a burden, especially for smaller platforms. On Friday, Bluesky said it will no longer be available in Mississippi because of its age verification requirements. While the social platform already does age verification in the UK, it said Mississippi's approach "would fundamentally change how users access Bluesky". That's because it requires every user to undergo an age check, not just those who want to access adult content. It would also require Bluesky to identify and track users that are children. "We think this law creates challenges that go beyond its child safety goals, and creates significant barriers that limit free speech and disproportionately harm smaller platforms," the company said in a blog post. Some websites and social media companies, such as Instagram's parent company Meta, have argued that age verification should be done by app store owners, such as Apple and Google, and not individual platforms. This would mean that app stores need to verify their users' ages before they allow them to download apps. Unsurprisingly, Apple and Google disagree. "Billed as 'simple' by its backers, including Meta, this proposal fails to cover desktop computers or other devices that are commonly shared within families. It also could be ineffective against pre-installed apps," Google said in a blog post. Nonetheless, a growing number of tech companies are implementing verification systems to comply with regulations or ward off criticism that they are not protecting children. This includes Google, which recently started testing a new age-verification system for YouTube that relies on AI to differentiate between adults and minors based on their watch histories. Instagram is testing a similar AI system to determine if kids are lying about their ages. Roblox, which was sued by the Louisiana attorney general on claims it doesn't do enough to protect children from predators, requires users who want to access certain games rated for those over 17 to submit a photo ID and undergo a face scan for verification. Roblox has also recently begun requiring age verification for teens who want to chat more freely on platform. Face scans that promise to estimate a person's age may address some of the concerns around IDs, but they can be unreliable. Can AI accurately tell, for instance, if someone is 17.5 or just turned 18? "Sometimes it's less accurate for women or it's less accurate for certain racial or ethnic groups or for certain physical characteristics that then may mean that those people have to go through additional privacy invasive screenings to prove that they are of a certain age," Huddleston said. While IDs are a common way of verifying someone's age, the method raises security concerns: What happens if companies don't delete the uploaded files, for instance? Case in point: the recent data breaches at Tea, an app for women to anonymously warn each other about the men they date, speak to some of these concerns. The app requires women who sign up to upload an ID or undergo a scan to prove that they are women. Tea wasn't supposed to keep the files but it did, and stored them in a way that allowed hackers to not only access the images, but also their private messages.
Share
Copy Link
The rise of online age verification laws across the globe sparks debate on protecting children versus preserving internet freedom and privacy.
Online age verification measures are becoming increasingly prevalent in the United States and around the world. These systems require users to prove their age, often through ID checks or face scans, before accessing certain websites or content 1. Proponents argue that these measures are essential for protecting children from harmful online material, particularly adult content.
Source: AP NEWS
More than 20 U.S. states have enacted some form of age verification law, although many face legal challenges 2. The Supreme Court has recently upheld age verification laws in Mississippi and Texas, ruling that adults do not have a First Amendment right to access obscene content without first proving their age 12.
The trend extends beyond the United States. The United Kingdom now mandates age verification for websites hosting pornographic content 3. Australia has taken a more drastic step by banning children under 16 from accessing social media altogether 4. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated, "Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them" 1.
France and other European Union countries are testing government-sponsored verification apps, while platforms like Reddit, X, Telegram, and Bluesky have committed to implementing age checks 3.
Critics of these measures, including Jennifer Huddleston from the Cato Institute, argue that age verification laws raise "significant privacy and speech concerns, not only for young people themselves, but also for all users of the internet" 1. The primary concern is that to verify minors' ages, everyone's age must be verified, potentially impacting adults' privacy and speech rights.
Jason Kelley from the Electronic Frontier Foundation warns of a dangerous split in internet access between those willing to identify themselves and those who aren't 1. This division could lead to restricted access to not just adult content, but also news, health information, and platforms for open, anonymous speech.
The implementation of age verification laws presents significant challenges, especially for smaller platforms. Bluesky, for instance, announced it would no longer be available in Mississippi due to the state's stringent age verification requirements 5. The company argued that the law "creates significant barriers that limit free speech and disproportionately harm smaller platforms" 1.
Source: Economic Times
Major tech companies are developing various approaches to age verification:
Some companies, like Meta, argue that age verification should be handled by app store owners rather than individual platforms. However, Apple and Google have pushed back against this proposal 1.
As online age verification measures continue to proliferate, the debate intensifies over how to balance child safety with concerns about internet freedom, privacy, and free speech. The challenge lies in creating effective protections for minors without unduly restricting adult access to information or compromising user privacy. As technology evolves and regulations adapt, this issue is likely to remain at the forefront of digital policy discussions for the foreseeable future.
Summarized by
Navi
[3]
[5]
U.S. News & World Report
|Online Age Checks Are Proliferating, but So Are Concerns They Curtail Internet FreedomThe rise of AI-generated music is transforming the music industry, with AI creators like Oliver McCann signing record deals and sparking debates about creativity, copyright, and the future of music production.
6 Sources
Technology
19 hrs ago
6 Sources
Technology
19 hrs ago
Microsoft reveals its Azure Integrated HSM, a custom-built security chip deployed on all Azure servers, as part of a comprehensive strategy to counter the growing cybercrime pandemic estimated to cost $10.2 trillion annually by 2025.
2 Sources
Technology
3 hrs ago
2 Sources
Technology
3 hrs ago
Researchers discover that AI chatbots, including GPT-4o mini, can be manipulated using psychological persuasion techniques, potentially compromising their safety measures and ethical guidelines.
3 Sources
Technology
3 hrs ago
3 Sources
Technology
3 hrs ago
OpenAI is reportedly planning to build a large-scale data center in India with at least 1 gigawatt capacity, marking a significant expansion of its Stargate AI infrastructure initiative in Asia.
4 Sources
Technology
3 hrs ago
4 Sources
Technology
3 hrs ago
Samsung is reportedly planning to unveil three innovative devices - a tri-fold smartphone, XR headset, and AI smart glasses - at a special Unpacked event in South Korea on September 29, marking a significant push into next-generation consumer technology.
2 Sources
Technology
3 hrs ago
2 Sources
Technology
3 hrs ago