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\n Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photo: Getty Images\n <\/p>\n
In July, the United Kingdom began implementing major parts of the Online Safety Act, a law that, in the government\u2019s words<\/a>, \u201cprotects children and adults online\u201d by putting \u201ca range of new duties on social media companies and search services, making them more responsible for their users\u2019 safety on their platforms.\u201d Chief among these duties is \u201cage assurance\u201d \u2014\u00a0that is, figuring out how old users are to prevent them from seeing pornography; content that \u201cencourages, promotes, or provides instructions\u201d for self-harm, eating disorders, and suicide; and, among other things, \u201ccontent which depicts or encourages serious violence or injury.\u201d<\/p>\n The basic idea here \u2014\u00a0that children shouldn\u2019t be actively served wildly inappropriate content in the course of conducting their regular lives online \u2014 sounds reasonable enough. But the U.K.\u2019s attempt at legislating a solution has so far been something of a disaster. Companies aren\u2019t sure how to comply, users aren\u2019t happy with how they\u2019re supposed to comply, and for all their invasiveness, age-verification systems don\u2019t really seem to work. Ofcom, the U.K.\u2019s communications regulator, outlined<\/a> a range of acceptable age-verification options, including \u201cfacial age estimation, which assesses a person\u2019s likely age through a live photo or video; checking a person\u2019s age via their credit card provider, bank or mobile phone network operator; photo ID matching, where a passport or similar ID is checked against a selfie; or a \u2018digital identity wallet\u2019 that contains proof of age.\u201d<\/p>\n In practice, it\u2019s not going well. The systems used by Reddit and Discord are being fooled<\/a> by screenshots from the game Death Stranding. VPN downloads, which allow users to pretend to be browsing from somewhere other than the U.K., are soaring<\/a>. Reddit<\/a> is blocking<\/a> users from sub-Reddits containing news and footage from Gaza and Ukraine unless they show ID, and other less clearly violent sub-Reddits are shutting off access too. According<\/a> to reporter Taylor Lorenz, British users need to verify their ages to access \u201cr\/periods, r\/stopsmoking, r\/stopdrinking,\u201d and \u201cother subreddits that provide essential community support to users including minors like r\/sexualassault.\u201d Companies are also scrambling to either develop or purchase age-gating tools of all sorts. Spotify is scanning faces<\/a>. YouTube<\/a> is using AI \u201cto interpret a variety of signals that help us to determine whether a user is over or under 18,\u201d which can be overridden with a government ID. X, which, like Reddit, serves lots of porn and other adult content, also estimates users\u2019 ages \u2014 but apparently not very well<\/a> and without a clear way to appeal.<\/p>\n It\u2019s too early to know how this law will settle into full implementation, but its implications are clear: For determined kids, it\u2019s relatively easy to cheat; for everyone else, suddenly required to prove their ages, it\u2019s a major privacy setback. As the Electronic Frontier Foundation<\/a> puts it:<\/p>\n The UK\u2019s scramble to find an effective age verification method shows us that there isn\u2019t one, and it\u2019s high time for politicians to take that seriously. The Online Safety Act is a threat to the privacy of users, restricts free expression by arbitrating speech online, exposes users to algorithmic discrimination through face checks, and leaves millions of people without a personal device or form of ID excluded from accessing the internet.<\/p>\n An overzealous U.K. law in the country\u2019s long tradition of disregarding civil liberties and privacy in favor of surveillance wouldn\u2019t be such a big deal on its own. But it\u2019s emblematic of a much larger trend: Around the world, and across the United States, age- and identity-verification laws are passing into law. The Supreme Court, in a swerve from precedent, recently upheld<\/a> a Texas age-verification law, and half of the American states, most with conservative governments, have passed laws with similar intentions and implementations, usually under the guise of preventing access to porn. Lots of services choose to ask for age and identity verification \u2014 anything that requires a credit card is effectively requiring identity verification, and you can\u2019t rent an e-scooter without submitting government ID \u2014 but with these laws, a comprehensively different internet is coming into view: one where, before you can do much of anything, you need to reveal who you are.<\/p>\n Sign Up for the Intelligencer\u00a0Newsletter<\/p>\n Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n