Age verification software requires a user to transmit extremely sensitive data – digitized copies of their government-issued identification, biometric scans, or other forms of up data used by commercial providers – over the internet. Even barring companies from retaining this information does not mitigate the dangers of transmitting it in the first place. The mere collection of this information opens users up to the risk of data breaches.
What You Need to Know
-
Protecting Children Online Does Not Require ID Checks for Everyone
Policymakers are right to take steps to safeguard children online, but mandatory age verification is not the best solution learn more ▸
-
A booming industry of AI age scanners, aimed at children’s faces
“Age assurance” checks are increasingly popular among lawmakers trying to wall kids off from the open internet. But they rely on a style of surveillance that ranges “from ‘somewhat privacy violating’ to ‘authoritarian nightmare.’” learn more ▸
-
The technology to verify your age without violating your privacy does not exist
Age-verification technology is not ready for prime time, which is the first and most fundamental problem with the proposals that rely on it. learn more ▸
More About Age Verification’s Impact on Privacy
-
Face Scans to Estimate Our Age: Harmful and Creepy AF
-
Opinion: Utah’s age verification mandate could backfire on parents, free speech
-
Protecting Children Online Does Not Require ID Checks for Everyone
-
Age Checks Threaten Security and Privacy, Report WarnsThe Right Way to Protect Children Online
-
Annual number of data compromises and individuals impacted in the United States from 2005 to 2023
-
We don’t need a surveillance state to protect kids from pornography
-
Americans are skeptical of online age verification, even as its use grows abroad
-
Hours After Aussie Gov’t Greenlights Online Age Verification Pilot, Breach Of Mandated Verification Database For Bars Is Revealed
-
Why North Carolinians are emailing state reps about porn
-
25 percent of kids will face identity theft before turning 18. Age-verification laws will make this worse.
-
Porn Ban—New Threat For iPhone, iPad, Android Users
-
A booming industry of AI age scanners, aimed at children’s faces
-
Age Verification Systems Will Be a Personal Identifiable Information Nightmare
-
VPN searches, demand spiked in Idaho this summer. Here’s the likely X-rated reason
-
Censoring the internet won’t protect kids
-
Australia will not force adult websites to bring in age verification due to privacy and security concerns