Age Verification

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AV (Age Verification) also referred to as AA (Age Affirmation) is the process in where a business requires some form of identification to verify your age. This is usually done for more explicit or mature content. This practice has been widely spreading since the UK's OSA (Online Safety Act) has passed; requiring all individuals to verify themselves before accessing mature content. Certain ways of checking can include: checking for a valid credit card, facial age estimation tools, government issued id, bio-metric data, or account history behavior and so forth.

How it works

When accessing a platform or website that may contain content not suitable for all audiences may force you to register for the platform along with verifying your age by one of the methods mentioned previously. Sites that likely don't use any form of account system will probably have a popup instead requiring you to verify your age before even serving the content you were trying to access.

Why it is a problem

Privacy

Having companies easily able to identify you means they can track you more efficiently and sell that shared profile to other companies such as ad agencies that then start targeting you specifically.

Governments can also more easily track online movements and find out who you are. Saying something that may go against their own agenda may end up with a police raid and heavy interrogation and prison time.

Censorship

Certain topics such as 18+ or political will likely be unfairly censored by the governing body or company that has a say on what platform has the potential to be inappropriate for minors or other age groups.

Platforms that host this type of content may also be more proactive in deleting/hiding posts that may get them in trouble or fined by laws or policies by local governments leading to a more censored internet where opinions are streamlined to fit a set narrative or outlook.

Storage of Private and Biometric Information by Age Verification Service Providers

A study commissioned by the Australian government found that age verification service providers accumulate a concerning amount of personal information, sometimes even biometric in nature, even when that was not necessary to provide the age verification service.

Driving users towards smaller and completely unregulated offerings

Big platforms can be regulated and forced to comply with applicable laws since they need to have infrastructure such as servers in all major markets. Only these will be affected by the age restriction requirement.

However, users who do not wish to compromise their privacy or who are not of age will then go looking towards smaller niche platforms, often in other regions not affected by the regulation or the darknet. With these offerings, there is little to no leverage with regards to removal of illegal content. Increased exposure to illegal content can then lead to both a strengthening of illegal content providers and significantly increased danger to minors, who may not yet be able to differentiate between legal and illegal content as well as an adult.

Examples

• YouTube's Age verification and account estimation algorithm.

• Spotify's Age affirmation for MA rated songs and content.

• Discord's Age verification for accounts determining what eligible servers are available.