Technicians and policy makers estimate that there is a defined generation problem on the internet: While it may be a revolutionary force for education and connections unprecedented globally, it can also pose a danger to children when completely unrestricted access.
However, there is no easy way to monitor children’s internet access without surveillance of adults, paving the way for disastrous online privacy violations.
While some advocate that these laws are a victory for children’s safety, many security experts warn that these laws are being proposed and passed flawed implementation plans, which also poses a dangerous safety risk to adult users. In the United States alone, 23 states have enacted age verification laws as of last month, and lawsuits were filed in September. Meanwhile, the UK’s online security law came into effect in July, requiring many online platforms to verify the user’s identity before granting access.
Here is a starter to the debate about age and identity verification.
What is age verification?
When we talk about age verification, we are not talking about when you created a Neopets account as a kid and checked a box to confirm that you are at least 13 years old. In the United States, these types of age checks are the result of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), an Internet Security Act passed in 1998. However, it is well known that if you have a Neopets account at the age of 10, the age checks from the Coppa era are easy to navigate. You just need to click on a box that says you are 13 years old.
In the context of the laws that emerged in the 2020s, age verification usually refers to users uploading their official IDs to a third-party verification system to prove who they are. Users can also upload biometric facial scans, such as those with ID on iPhones.
What is the focus of age verification?
Of course, Internet security is not about preventing children from playing games like Neopets. Parents and lawmakers are concerned that children visit content to minors, such as online pornography, information about illegal drug use, and social media sites, where they may encounter strangers with bad intentions.
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These problems are not without basis. Parents have turned to the councillor to share A terrible story About how their children die after buying fentanyl blood drugs on Facebook, or how they make a living after facing the constant bullying Snapchat.
As technology becomes more complex, the problem becomes worse: Meta’s AI chatbot is reportedly Flirt with childrenwhile the role and openai face litigation In suicides of children allegedly encouraged by corporate chatbots.
We know the internet is pretty good. Without leaving home or spending money, you can learn to play guitar or write code. You can build meaningful friendships with people from the other side of the world. Even if you live in a place where you are not trained in a diagnosed doctor, you can access dedicated telemedicine care. You can find the answer to any question you want at any given moment (by the way, the capital of Madagascar is antanarivo).
This is how global legislators achieve what they think is a reasonable compromise: They won’t approve the entire internet, but they just put something behind the door and can only be unlocked if you can prove that you are an adult. But in this case you don’t just click a box to confirm your age – you’re uploading a government ID or scanning biometric data to prove that you have access to something.
Verify that your identity is secure by uploading a government ID or biometric scan?
The security of any digital security measure depends on its implementation.
Apple built products like Face ID to make your face biometric scans never leave your iPhone—they were never shared on the cloud, which greatly limits the potential for hackers to access.
However, when it comes to any connection to another network, ID verification may become variable. We have watched how these measures work outside of the rock content outside of technology.
“The method without age verification is both privacy protection and complete accuracy”,” Electronic Border Foundation write a letter. “These methods are not suitable for the range of ‘safer’ and ‘safer’ or ‘more accurate’ and ‘accurate’. Instead, they are each one of them in “a dangerous way” “in a different way.”
In recent memory, we have some powerful examples of how bad things can get when companies glide on their safety.
On Tea, the apps women use to share information about men they meet on dating apps, users must upload photos of their selfies and ID cards to prove they are what they say. But misogynistic online forum 4chan found tea Disclose user datawhich means bad actors can access government IDs, selfies, and even direct information on the platform for thousands of users, where women share sensitive information about their dating experiences. Once called Women’s Safety apps ended up suffering from vicious harassment from users, giving actors access to personal information such as home addresses.
Although Tea promises not to store these images anywhere and be deleted immediately (apparently, these claims are wrong), these hacks are possible.
This kind of thing happens all the time – just look at TechCrunch’s Security coverage. But this is not only happening in new apps like tea. World Government and A trillion-dollar tech giant Of course, it is not immune to data leakage.
Is it really important if I lose anonymity on the internet? I didn’t do anything dark.
These laws sparked a huge backlash, but it was not only because people were shy about linking their porn viewing rates to government IDs.
Where people can prosecute political speech, anonymity is crucial to people who allow people to make sense of current affairs and criticize those in power without fear of retribution. If all of their online activities are related to their identities, then company whistleblowers may be unable to report company misconduct, and victims of domestic abuse will find it more difficult to escape from the danger.
In the United States, the idea of being prosecuted for political beliefs is becoming less and less. President Trump has threaten Sent his political opponents to prison, the government has Revoke visa International students who criticize the Israeli government or participate in protests against the country’s military operations.
In the United States, what age verification law has come into effect?
In the United States, Twenty-three states As of August 2025, an age verification law has been formulated, while the other two states will come into effect in late September 2025.
Most of these laws affect a website that has a percentage of “sexual materials that are harmful to minors” that vary from state to state.
In fact, this means that porn sites must verify the user’s identity before accessing the site. But some websites, such as Pornhub, have chosen Block traffic From certain states.
“Because the age verification software requires users to hand over extremely sensitive information, it opens the door to the risk of data breaches,” Pornhub Write On its blog. “The government has historically worked to secure this data, regardless of whether your intention is good or not.”
What is considered “sexual material that is harmful to minors”?
The definition of this term varies by enforcing the law.
Rights in LGBTQ Under attack In the United States, activists have warn Such laws can be used to classify non-women’s education information about the LGBTQ community as well as basic sex education as “sexual material that is harmful to minors.” Given that President Trump’s administration already has sufficient problems, these problems seem to be very basic Reference deleted From certain government websites to the civil rights movement and LGBTQ history.
Age verification method in Texas – persist in In a June Supreme Court ruling, the state imposed other legal restrictions on the LGBTQ community, including restrictions Public resistance display And prohibited Gender affirmative care For minors. Drag Show Law was later considered unconstitutional for violating the First Amendment.
What happened to age verification in the UK?
The UK has promulgated Online Security Law In July 2025, many online platforms are required to verify the user’s identity before allowing access. If a user is identified as a minor, it is not allowed on certain websites. The bill applies to search engines, social media platforms, video sharing platforms, instant messaging services, cloud storage sites – almost anywhere you can encounter media or talk to someone.
Actually, this means that sites like YouTube, Spotify, Google, X and Reddit require UK users to verify their identity before accessing certain content. These requirements apply not only to pornographic or violent content – people in the UK are banned from viewing important educational and news sources, so it is difficult to access information without putting themselves in potential privacy issues.
The UK does not use a specific way to verify its identity – a single website can decide which mechanism to use, and the UK’s communications regulator Ofcom should oversee this implementation. However, as we explain in the TEA example, we cannot trust that any given authentication tool is secure.
Now, authenticated users must decide whether to access information freely or to be exposed to privacy risks.
Will the UK Age Verification Act affect me if I live elsewhere?
Even if you do not live in the UK, you may be affected by a technology platform pre-curated with these regulations.
In the United States, YouTube has begun to launch technologies that should be launched Estimate the age of the user Depending on their activities, no matter what age they listed when registering for an account.
Can’t you just use a VPN to solve these barriers?
Yes, the UK’s App Store chart proves this – half of iOS’ top 10 free apps after the Online Security Act came into effect VPN (Virtual Private Network). We also saw VPN download Spike after many states in the United States blocked PornHub access.
ProtonVPN says Pornhub was suspended in France, registration already exists 1000% peak value In half an hour – the company said it was a spike that Tiktok temporarily blocked U.S. users.
If you’re remotely logged into an office desktop computer, or you can trick your location so you can watch American sitcoms for free, you may have used a VPN
This introduces another problem: even if it is advertised as an ad, a free VPN doesn’t always have excellent privacy practices.
If you want to learn more about VPNs, TechCrunch has a guide What you need to know About VPN and How do you decide If you need to use one.
