The laws requiring digital age checks — sold as child protection — are tanking the income of adult industry workers, risking their safety and even forcing them out of business.
The Age-Gated Internet Is Sweeping the US. Activists Are Fighting Back
Half of the country now requires age verification to watch porn or access “harmful” content. Digital rights advocates are pushing back against legislation they say will make the internet less safe.
Age-Verification Laws Seek to Erase LGBTQ+ Identity from the Internet
Age-verification laws are weaponized to censor LGBTQ+ and abortion-related content online under the guise of protecting children from porn.
Age Verification in the US
We continue to block access to Pornhub in more states that have passed age verification laws.
Age verification is coming for the internet — and it’s already raising red flags
Legislative efforts to age-gate parts of the internet are gaining traction. Some experts warn of compliance complications and data security breaches.
#cybersafety #ageverification #privacy #minors #ai | Parry Aftab
Internet Age-Verification Causing More Risks than It’s Worth This is not a new issue. Regulators and policymakers have raised it for the last 28 years as the way the keep kids safer online. They compare it to having to flash an ID to purchase regulated content or items (porn, cigarettes, alcohol, restricted medications, age-restricted movies, amusement rides, etc.) But verification online is very different and vastly riskier than flashing an ID in real life. For one, it’s collecting personally-identifiable information about our kids. For two, it puts that information in the too-often untrustworthy digital hands of tech companies. For three, while porn, alcohol and regulated drugs may be a clear-cut case for restricting access to adults, access to the Internet is very different. Yet, regulations begun in the UK and adopted globally have begun a weighted cybersafety approach that, in my humble opinion, prefers excluding young people from digital technology over teaching the cybersafety and digital life skills. That, in my 32 years of work in the fields of cybersafety and protection of minors online, was and remains a mistake. One of my best known quotes, repeated in Congressional and state legislative testimony and in the media is: “The greatest single risk our children face online is being denied access. We have solutions for everything else.” (my testimony before the FTC) Some proponents of age-verification have opted to denying them access unless they give up confirmable personally-identifiable info, such as selfies, feeding AI with PII, and govt or school credentials. I argue that this gives social networks, game providers and digital app operators a wealth of PII to be used for profiling, marketing and collecting far too much. With their privacy at stake, too often incompetent, malicious and greedy producers and mega-tech industry players, can’t and shouldn’t be trusted with the personal info of our most vulnerable - our kids. And AI will now be tasked with collecting everything it can find about our kids to be able to “age-verify.” (It’s ability to age-verify is less reliable with youth as their data-sets are more limited.) I served on a task force appointed by 49 state attorneys general, charged to research and weigh-in on this issue. We concluded that age-verification wasn’t feasible. While this task force was formed many years ago, with the exception of a fortified AI, not much as changed. Our children’s privacy remains, or should remain, paramount. We have robust filtering and blocking technologies. The adult industry has adopted an age-gated model. And parents can restrict access using device-specific tools. And, many well-intentioned age-verification laws were adopted too quickly for thoughtful discourse. Or by governments more prone to censorship/content restrictions. I fear in our quest to protect our kids we have thrown our babies out with the bath water. #cybersafety #ageverification #privacy #minors #AI
Who’s Harmed by Age Verification Mandates?
Age-verification laws may sound straightforward to some: protect young people online by making everyone prove their age. But in reality, these mandates force users into one of two flawed
US industry and advocacy groups warn against mandatory age verification laws - CADE – Civil Society Alliances for Digital Empowerment
Several US organisations have urged Congress to reconsider proposals that would require mandatory age verification for online services, citing concerns about privacy, data security, and constitutional rights.
Hack of Age Verification Company Shows Privacy Danger of Social Media
We’ve said it before: online age verification is incompatible with privacy. Companies responsible for storing or processing sensitive documents like drivers’ licenses are likely to encounter data
Online age-verification tools spread across U.S. for child safety, but adults are being surveilled
New age-verification laws and tools are designed for child safety on social media and the internet, but adults are in the crosshairs, say privacy experts.
Age verification: Child protection or privacy risk?
With more platforms and governments asking for age verification, we look at the options and the implications.
Mandatory age verification for pornography access: Why it can't and won't ‘save the children’ - Zahra Stardust, Abdul Obeid, Alan McKee, Daniel Angus, 2024
Age verification is currently gaining traction among some western democracies as a means to restrict minors’ access to online pornography. In this article we co...
10 (Not So) Hidden Dangers of Age Verification
It’s nearly the end of 2025, and half of the US and the UK now require you to upload your ID or scan your face to watch “sexual content.” A handful of states and Australia now have various
Age Verification Mandates Would Undermine Anonymity Online
Age verification systems are surveillance systems. Mandatory age verification, and with it, mandatory identity verification, is the wrong approach to protecting young people online. It would force
Age-verification laws are just VPN tutorials
On July 25, the day the United Kingdom activated the first phase of its Online Safety Act, requiring any website with sexually explicit…
Social media age verification laws in the United States
In the United States, age verification laws for social media are ostensibly designed to limit young people's access to content deemed problematic such as pornography and to reduce the negative impact of social media on the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.
To filter out minors, "you have to age verify everybody,” EFF’s Sophia Cope told @latimes.com, infringing on “1st Amendment rights of adults who may not want to have their driver’s license uploaded to this site that relates to gay & bisexual relationships.”
9th Circuit clears Grindr, dating app for gay men, in child sex trafficking case
www.latimes.com