Some age verification systems are no match for enterprising kids. Kids discovered they could bypass adult website blocks by simply drawing on fake beards with a makeup pencil.
UK-based non-profit organization Internet Matters surveyed 1,000 children about online age verification checks and found that around half said age verification could be easily circumvented.
“Children demonstrated clear awareness of how to circumvent age checks, either through their own experience or hearing about how to do so from others,” the report said.
“One of the techniques that was brought up was for children to draw beards on themselves to make tools that validate them think they were older, and this has reportedly worked in multiple cases,” it added.
Age verification laws continue to be rolled out around the world, many in the name of protecting children online, but adults are typically required to prove their age by uploading a copy of their driver's license or passport to a third-party company before being allowed access to adult websites. Critics argue that these laws threaten an open, decentralized internet by allowing the creation of databases that can be hacked and leaked.
Half of all states in the United States have some form of age verification law, as does the United Kingdom, which has been the driving force behind much of the global effort.
That's why companies like Apple are rolling out software updates to device owners to comply with ever-increasing age verification laws. Web companies like Reddit and Meta use a combination of asking users to upload government-issued documents and creepy guessing methods that algorithmically guess a person's age. Some companies, such as Discord, have slowed their rollout due to user backlash and security issues.
This is not the first bypass children have caught in recent months since the introduction of increased age verification tests. Some children have found that pointing their webcam at an adult-looking character in a video game also helps. Other times, pulling a nondescript or funny face was enough to avoid a check altogether.
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