Engineers and policy makers consider the issues defining generations on the Internet. It could be a revolutionary force for unprecedented education and connections around the world, but it could pose a risk to children when they have full freedom of access.
However, there is no easy way to monitor a child's internet access without monitoring adults.
While some supporters praise these laws as a victory over child safety, many security experts warn that these laws have been proposed and passed in a lacking implementation plan.
This is an introductory book on where age and identity verification exists and where these laws are in place.
What exactly is age verification?
When talking about age verification methods, we are not talking about when you created a Neopet account since you were a child and checked the box to make sure you are at least 13 years old. In the United States, these types of age checks are the result of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), an Internet Safety Act passed in 1998. You simply click on the box that says 13 years old.
In the context of law that occurred in the 2020s, age verification usually refers to a user uploading their official ID to a third-party verification system to prove who they are. Users may also upload biometric facial scans, like those that power IDs on iPhones.
What is the age verification?
Of course, internet safety is not to prevent children from playing games like Neopets. Parents and lawmakers worry about children who access content that is potentially dangerous to minors, including online pornography, information about illegal drug use, and social media sites where they may encounter strangers with bad intentions.
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These concerns are not unfounded. Parents turned to lawmakers and shared horrifying stories about how their children died after purchasing fentanyl-covered medicines on Facebook, or how they took their lives after facing constant bullying on Snapchat.
The problem gets worse as technology becomes more refined. Meta's AI chatbots are reportedly cheating with their children, but Charition.ai and Openai are facing a child suicide lawsuit, which is said to be encouraged by corporate chatbots.
However, I know that the internet isn't all bad. You can learn to play guitar and write chords without leaving your home or spending money. You can build meaningful friendships with people on the other side of the world. Even if you live in a place where your doctor is not trained to diagnose, you will still have access to specialized telehealthcare. You can always find the answer to the questions you need (Antananarivo is the capital of Madagascar).
This is how global lawmakers have reached what they believe to be a healthy compromise. They don't make the entire internet a whole, but they just put certain content behind the gates that can be unlocked only if they can prove you're an adult. But in this case, it's not just a click on the box to confirm your age. They upload a government ID or scan biometric data to prove that they can access certain content.
Is it safe to upload your government ID or biometric scan to verify your identity?
The security of a digital security measure depends on its implementation.
Apple builds products like Face ID, so these biometric scans of the face won't leave your iPhone. It is not shared on the cloud, and the chances of access by hackers are significantly limited.
But when any kind of connection to another network involves, that is when identity verification can get fish. We have already seen how these measurements will stop working if the technology is not solid.
“There is no way to verify age. It is privacy-prevention and completely accurate,” writes the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “These methods don't fit anywhere in the spectrum of “safer,” “less safer,” “more accurate,” and “not more accurate,” respectively. Rather, they each fall from “unilaterally dangerous” to “danger in a different way.” ”
Recent memories have some powerful examples of how bad things can go when businesses fall into that security.
Tea, an app that women use to share information about men they meet on dating apps, users need to upload selfies and photos of their IDs to prove they are the person they say. However, users of 4Chan, a misogynistic web forum, have discovered that TEA will publish their data. In other words, bad actors have found that women can access government identities, selfies and even direct messages of tens of thousands of users on platforms where they share sensitive information about their dating experiences. What was once argued as a female safety app exposed users to malicious harassment, resulting in poor access to personal information, such as home addresses.
These hacks were possible despite tea's promise that these images were not saved anywhere and were quickly deleted (obviously, their claims were false).
This kind of thing happens all the time – look at TechCrunch security coverage. But it's not just happening with new apps like Tea. The world government and trillion dollar tech giants certainly have not been exempt from data breaches.
Is it really important to lose anonymity on the Internet? I'm not doing anything suspicious.
These laws have affected many backlash, but it's not just because people are shy about linking porn audiences to government IDs.
Where people may be prosecuted for political speech, anonymity is essential to enable people to meaningfully discuss current events and criticize those in power without fear of retaliation. Corporate whistleblowers will not be able to report corporate fraud if all online activities are linked to their identity, and victims of domestic abuse will find it even more difficult to escape from dangerous situations.
In the United States, the idea of being prosecuted for one's political beliefs is becoming less theoretical. President Trump threatened to send his political opponents to prison, and the government has revoked visas from international students who criticized the Israeli government or participated in protests against the country's military actions.
What age verification methods are in place in the United States?
In the United States, 23 states have enacted age verification laws as of August 2025, but two more states are expected to enter into force in late September 2025.
These laws primarily affect websites that host a certain percentage of “sexual material that is harmful to minors.” This varies from state to state.
In reality, this means that a porn website must verify the user's ID before a user can access the website. However, some sites like Pornhub have chosen to simply block traffic from certain states.
“Age verification software requires users to hand over very sensitive information, opening the door to the risk of data breach,” Pornhub wrote in its blog. “Whether your intentions are good or not, the government has historically struggled to secure this data.”
What are “sexual substances that are harmful to minors”?
The definition of this term depends on who is enforcing the law.
When LGBTQ rights are under attack in the United States, activists warn that such laws can be used to classify non-pornographic information and basic sex education about the LGBTQ community as “sexual substances harmful to minors.” These concerns seem well-founded, given that President Trump's administration has removed references to civil rights movements and LGBTQ history from several government websites.
The Texas Age Verification Act, upheld in a June Supreme Court decision, passed at the same time that the state imposed other legal restrictions on the LGBTQ community, including a ban on gender-violating care for minors. Drug Show law was later deemed unconstitutional for violating the First Amendment.
What's happening in the age verification in the UK?
The UK enacted the Online Safety Act in July 2025, requiring that many online platforms be verified before users can grant access. If a user is identified as a minor, this will not be permitted on certain websites. The Act applies to search engines, social media platforms, video sharing platforms, instant messaging services and cloud storage sites.
In reality, this means that websites like YouTube, Spotify, Google, X, Reddit and others require that UK users verify their identity before accessing certain content. These requirements do not apply to pornographic or violent content only. People in the UK are prohibited from viewing important education and news sources, making it difficult to access information without being exposed to potential privacy concerns.
The UK does not use one particular method of verifying its identity. Individual websites can decide which mechanisms to use. And ofcom, the UK communications regulator, is supposed to oversee the implementation. However, as explained in the tea example, it is hard to believe that certain authentication tools are safe.
Currently, users who are subject to identity verification must decide whether they want to have free access to the information or expose themselves to privacy risks.
If I live elsewhere, will the UK age verification method affect me?
Even if you don't live in the UK, you may be affected by high-tech platforms that pre-complete these regulations.
In the US, YouTube is already beginning to deploy technology that is supposed to estimate the age of users based on their activity, regardless of how many years they signed up when registering an account.
Can't you use a VPN to avoid these barriers?
Yes, and the UK App Store charts prove that. After the Online Safety Act came into effect, half of iOS's top 10 free apps were VPNs (virtual private networks). Also, VPN downloads downloaded spikes after Pornhub access was blocked in many US states.
When Pornhub was suspended in France, ProtonVPN said registrations had surged by 1,000% within 30 minutes. The company said it was a bigger spike than when Tiktok temporarily blocked American users.
If you log in remotely to your office desktop computer, or if you spoof your location so that you can view UK sitcoms for free from the US, you may have used a VPN before
This introduces another issue. Free VPNs don't always have great privacy practices, even if they're advertised.
If you'd like to learn more about VPNs, TechCrunch has a guide on what you need to know about VPNs and how to determine whether you need to use them.