Age Verification on Adult Sites: Why It Doesn’t Work
In Texas, new regulations will demand age verification for visitors on adult websites. Although such laws aim to prevent minors from accessing inappropriate content, they may inadvertently generate larger problems.
Age Verification in Practice
Texas becomes the seventh state to tackle this age verification issue. The upcoming HB 1181 stipulates that platforms with explicit content must utilize “reasonable age-verification methods”. These can range from photos of government IDs to using transactional data to ascertain age. The legislation targets platforms where over a third of the content is considered harmful for minors.
However, privacy concerns arise when such verification methods are employed. Storing personal identification information can create a lucrative target for cyberattacks. As seen in the U.K., even when third-party age verification systems are considered, issues emerge. The U.K.’s Open Rights Group has voiced concerns over certain systems that employ facial recognition, pointing out potential risks of collecting children’s biometric data without proper governance.
Australia’s Cautionary Approach
Australia has recently stepped back from implementing similar laws. While they had considered a trial of age-verification technology utilizing electronic tokens, they decided that the infrastructure for such systems required further refinement.
The Challenges of Regulation
Despite any potential verification method, both adults and minors might still find ways to access adult content without identification. Major adult websites might abide by regional laws, but numerous other platforms, especially those based in countries like Russia and China, may not. Moreover, VPNs, which can disguise a user’s actual location, further complicate regional regulations.
The U.K.’s attempt at network-level filters, proposed in 2012, was flawed. These filters failed to restrict certain explicit content while also blocking benign sites. The BCS (Chartered Institute for IT in the U.K.) suggests that governments should be cautious about solely relying on technology to address the issue. They believe the focus should be on educating the young and their guardians about online risks and mitigation, rather than purely on prevention through technology.
