Latest news with #ageverification
Fast Company
35 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Internet regulation is entering its hall pass era
Big changes are coming to the web in the days ahead. On July 25, the U.K.'s Online Safety Act will take effect, bringing sweeping changes to how users experience the internet. Within the next week, websites like Reddit and Bluesky will begin asking users to verify their age—either by providing official ID, bank details that prove their age, or a selfie analyzed by age-estimation software. The act mandates that platforms implement 'highly effective' age verification measures to prevent underage users from accessing inappropriate content—whether that's pornography, violent material, or other age-inappropriate content. This follows a Supreme Court decision in June requiring users in Texas to provide personal information to access pornographic websites. There are growing concerns that what began with adult sites could soon expand to more general platforms. 'We can expect trickle-down verification creep,' warns social media expert Matt Navarra. 'First porn, then gambling, then AI content tools, and eventually even comment sections.' Some observers argue that a new era of internet regulation is beginning. They're calling it the 'hall pass era': To go anywhere or do anything online, users will have to hand over personal information to a range of providers. 'This shift towards a more ID-locked web is one of the biggest, messiest evolutions we've seen online in years,' says Navarra. 'The era of the anonymous internet died a long time ago, but pseudonymity remains, and we are watching the death flows of the free internet,' says Myles Jackman, a U.K. obscenity lawyer opposed to the upcoming changes. Carolina Are, a fellow at Northumbria University's Center for Digital Citizens, acknowledges the intent behind age checks but warns that ID-based systems could backfire. She argues they risk exposing users—especially marginalized groups—to privacy violations, given how much data platforms already collect. 'Just look at people being refused entry into the U.S. due to social media posts,' she says. David Greene, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, agrees that the motivations— stopping bots and protecting kids —are understandable. But he calls the proposed age restrictions overly broad and rights-infringing. He notes they could harm adults who depend on anonymity, such as whistleblowers, sex workers, or domestic abuse survivors. Navarra expresses frustration at how open platforms are being forced to bend to a conservative worldview. 'Bluesky requiring official ID is the ultimate irony,' he says. 'This platform literally was born out of Twitter's decentralization dream [of] open, federated, anti-censorship ideals—and now you need a passport to post.' According to Greene, the issue reflects 'not a lot of deep thinking about the nature of the problem.' Are agrees, suggesting the shift favors corporate interests over the public good. 'While [ID tech] has potential, it's being adopted like every other technology: creating a gold rush climate for ID check—private—companies that will expand like tech start ups and with a 'move fast and break things' approach rather than a public sector, do no harm approach,' she says.
WIRED
16 hours ago
- WIRED
Roblox's New Age Verification Feature Uses AI to Scan Teens' Video Selfies
Jul 17, 2025 3:37 PM Roblox will scan video selfies of teens to assess their ages as part of a new 'Trusted Connections' feature that gives users access to unfiltered chatting with people they know. The app of the online gaming platform Roblox. Photograph:Roblox is rolling out new features aimed at making the platform safer for minors, including a revamped friend system, privacy tools, and age verification services users submit by recording a video selfie. In Roblox's old friend system, players have no distinction between people they know casually or online vs someone they consider a close friend. The platform's new tiered system introduces Connections and 'Trusted Connections' specifically for people that players know and trust. To access Trusted Connections and its benefits, users first need to complete an age verification, which requires them to submit a video selfie. Once they've submitted their video, the company says it's then run against an AI-driven 'diverse dataset' to get an age estimation. If the user appears to be under 13, they will automatically lose access to any features not deemed age appropriate. For users whose ages cannot be determined with 'high confidence,' according to a blog on the company's site, their age remains unconfirmed; they'll need to use ID verification to pass. The company says it will allow for parental consent in the future; biometric data is deleted after 30 days, except where required in the case of a warrant or subpoena. WIRED raised the issue of 13-year-olds not having government-issued IDs to chief safety officer Matt Kaufman in a call. 'That is a problem,' Kaufman says. 'In North America or maybe the United States in particular, that's not common. In other parts of the world, it is much more common to have photo ID.' If a child is unable to obtain verification due to lack of ID, they can get verified through their parents. If their parents are unable to do so for any reason, kids won't be able to use Trusted Connections. Teen users who pass the age check will be able to use the Trusted Connections feature to add anyone ages 13 to 17. Anyone 18 or older will need to be added either via an in-person QR code scan, or via a phone number. With Trusted Connections, Roblox removes filters—which includes inappropriate language and personally identifiable information—on party voice and text chats for users 13 and up. Those communications are still subject to Roblox's community standards and moderation, but the company hopes removing filters will keep users on their platform, rather than moving to spaces like Discord. By keeping players within Roblox, the company can still monitor their activity. A spokesperson told The Verge that includes 'any predatory behavior aimed at manipulating or harming minors, the sexualization of minors, engaging in inappropriate sexual conversations with or requesting sexual content, and any involvement with child sexual abuse material.' Kaufman says the company wants to make Roblox 'safe by default.' That's why the company filters communications even for teenagers who haven't verified their age. 'If parents are uncomfortable with that and it's the right decision for their family, parents can turn off communications through parental controls,' Kaufman says. Roblox is one of the biggest platforms worldwide in video games, especially with kids. According to Kaufman in a press briefing, roughly 98 million people from 180 countries use the platform; Kaufman says that over 60 percent of users are over age 13. The company has struggled, however, with predators and minors' safety. According to a 2024 Bloomberg report, police have arrested at least two dozen people who've used Roblox as a platform for grooming, abuse, or abduction. Roblox has also been the subject of several lawsuits. This includes a class action lawsuit alleging the company harvests user data, including that of minors, and a federal lawsuit alleging a 13-year-old girl was exploited and sexually groomed via Roblox and Discord. In the briefing, Kaufman called Roblox 'one of the safest places online for people to come together and spend time with their friends and their family.' Kirra Pendergast, founder and CEO of Safe on Social—an online safety organization operating worldwide—says Roblox's latest safety measures are largely op-in, therefore putting 'responsibility on minors to identify and manage risks, something that contradicts everything we know about grooming dynamics.' Features like machine learning age estimation tools, for example, can incorrectly categorize users as older or younger; in person code scanning, she says, 'assumes that in-person QR code scanning is inherently safe.' 'Predators frequently use real-world grooming tactics,' says Pendergast. 'A QR scan doesn't verify a trusted relationship. A predator could build trust online, then manipulate the child into scanning a QR code offline thus validating a 'Trusted Connection' in Roblox's system. Real protection would require guardian co-verification of any connections not child-initiated permissions.' Furthermore, says Pendergast, Trusted Connections only applies to chat, which leaves 'large surface areas exposed making it a brittle barrier at best.' When asked how an in-person QR code keeps minors safe from real-world tactics, Kaufman echoed his comment in the press briefing that there is no 'silver bullet.' Instead, he says it's many systems working together. 'Those systems begin with our policies, our community standards,' Kaufman says. 'It's our product which does automated monitoring of things, it's our partnerships, it's people behind the scenes. So we have a whole suite of things that are in place to keep people safe. It is not just a QR code, or it is not just age estimation, it's all of these things acting in concert.' Kaufman says that Roblox is 'going farther' than other platforms by not allowing kids age 13 to 17 to have unfiltered communication without going through Trusted Connections. 'We feel that we're really setting the standard for the world in what it means to have safe, open communication for a teen audience.' According to Roblox's briefing, the updates are part of Roblox's typical development process and haven't been 'influenced by any particular event' or feedback. 'It's not a reaction to something,' Kaufman said. 'This is part of our long term plan to make Roblox as safe as it can possibly be.' In a call with WIRED, Kaufman added that the heightened scrutiny and discussion of the game hasn't had a dramatic impact on the company's plans. 'What we're doing with this announcement is also trying to set the bar for what we think is appropriate for kids,' he says. Looking at technology like generative AI, he says, 'the technology may have changed, but the principles are still the same. We also look at AI as a real opportunity to be able to do some of the things that we do in safety at scale when we think about moderation. AI is central to that.' Kaufman added in that briefing that Roblox believes it's important for parents and guardians to 'build a dialogue' with their kids about online safety. 'It's about having discussions about where they're spending time online, who their friends are, and what they're doing,' Kaufman says. ' That discussion is probably the most important thing to do to keep people safe, and we're investing in the tools to make that happen.' Kaufman says that Roblox is aware that families have different expectations on what's appropriate online behavior. 'If parents make a decision about what's appropriate for their kid, it may not match the decisions that we might make, or I might make for my own family,' he said. 'But that's okay, and we respect that difference.' Dina Lamdany, who leads product for user settings and parental controls, said in that briefing that as teenagers are experimenting with their independence, 'it's really a moment where it's important for them to learn the skills that they need to be safe online.' Teen users can grant dashboard access to their parents, which gives parents the ability to see who their child's trusted connections are. 'We won't be notifying parents proactively right now,' Lamdany says. Online safety, especially for minors, is an ongoing problem in games spaces. Nintendo recently introduced GameChat with the Switch 2, a social feature that allows players to connect with friends without leaving the platform. For younger users, it relies heavily on parental controls, while adults are expected to be proactive in who they chat with. The system's privacy policy warns that it might also 'monitor and record your video and audio interactions with other users,' though some people are concerned about that level of surveillance and argue it makes GameChat less appealing than Discord. Kaufman says that Roblox takes privacy seriously. 'We're the only large platform in the world that has a large number of kids and teens on it, and for that reason, privacy has been built into the foundation of our entire platform,' he says. Pendergast says that if Roblox wants to lead the way in safety, it has to take harder stances. 'It must stop asking children and parents to manage their own protection and start building environments where trust isn't optional, it's engineered in as safety by design,' she says. 'Age estimation, parental dashboards, and AI behavioural monitoring must be default, not optional, creating a baseline of systemic defense, not user-managed or user-guardian managed risk.' Otherwise, Pendergast says, 'parents and children are left to do the heavy lifting often without the digital and online safety literacy required.'
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
How will age verification for porn work and what about your data?
The way people in the UK access websites with pornographic material is about to undergo a significant Online Safety Act says sites must make it harder for under-18s to see explicit material - and major adult websites have confirmed they will introduce advanced age checks by 25 regulator Ofcom estimates 14 million people watch online pornography - and concerns have been raised about the privacy and security implications of them having to undergo more robust identity checks. Age verification companies, who are likely to be employed, say people should be reassured because firms don't retain data, and they don't know what a person has accessed."The only non-hackable database is no database at all," says Iain Corby, of the Age Verification Providers Association. Chelsea Jarvie, a cyber security expert, says society needs to be cautious about "normalising mass identification online".There are a number of ways an adult website may choose to verify a user's age, and Ofcom has recommended seven methods. A website may allow a combination of them to give people choice. Let's look at them. Credit card age checks How it worksYou provide your credit card details and a payment processor checks if the card is are the privacy issues?Age verification firm Verifymy says when you carry out this check on its service, a two-factor authentication check and a mini transaction with no exchange of money takes place, similar to checking into a hotel. "No personal data gets passed on to an adult platform in any way. It is simply a yes or no as to answering a question: is this individual over 18?", said Andy Lulam, Verifymy's chief operating 5RightsFoundation - an online child safety charity - said credit card checks, along with the photo identification and digital identity verification methods, offered high levels of assurance especially when the data was well protected, but "carry significant privacy risks if not designed and managed appropriately". Digital identity services How it worksThese include digital identity wallets, which can securely store and share information which proves your are the privacy issues?Omari Rodney is the chief product engineer for told BBC News once a document such as a passport was examined and verified, all parts of it were then separated and encrypted. The only person who could decrypt it was the individual."We can't see that information unless we get permission from you," he another verification firm, said the user could choose to share a part of their identity - that they were over the age of Jarvie, however, thinks digital wallets - along with open banking - "can feel disproportionate" as a method to prove you are over 18. Email-based age estimation How it worksYou provide your email address, and technology analyses other online services where it has been used - such as banking or utility providers - to estimate your are the privacy issues?Verifymy are one of operators, and it told the BBC its research identified this as the method users would be most comfortable Lulham says the technology checks if an email has been used to interact with a range of websites such as financial said data could be kept for up to 28 days, but added it would often be less, would be encrypted, and no data would be shared with the website being accessed. Facial age estimation How it worksYou show your face via photo or video, and technology analyses it to estimate your are the privacy issues?A verification company would typically check if it is a human, only one person, and not a use an AI model to determine a person's age. While facial age estimation "can be accurate", Ms Jarvie said her research indicated many people would not be comfortable using this method. Mobile network operator age checks How it worksYou give your permission for an age-check service to confirm whether or not your mobile phone number has age filters applied to it. What are the privacy issues?Yoti looks at who the bill payer is, and if it is an adult paying for a child's phone - such as on a family plan. The mobile operator is asked to confirm the age of the person, but would not know which website they intend on company OneID has the user log into their digital ID via their phone number, with the mobile operator confirming if the person is over said pay as you go numbers wouldn't be compatible - users would need to have a phone contract. Open Banking How it worksYou give permission for the age-check service to securely access information from your bank about whether you are over are the privacy issues?OneID uses this method if a user cannot verify they are over the age of 18 via their mobile OneID does not see your transactions, it would see your account number and sort code during its one-off check - but says it does not keep any founder Rob Kotlarz accepts users may be reluctant to show their bank details so they can access an adult website."It is the right thing to protect children," he told BBC News. "We are offering a simpler way of checking someone's age. If it is simple and seamless, why wouldn't you do it to protect the kids?" Photo ID matching How it worksYou upload an image of an ID document that shows your face and age, and an image of yourself at the same time. These are then compared to confirm the document is are the privacy issues?As well as UK documents, Yoti would allow the user to upload some from outside of the Jarvie believes photo ID uploads and credit card checks "feel outdated" and "highly intrusive". Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Reddit Launches New Age Checking Requirements in the UK
This story was originally published on Social Media Today. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Social Media Today newsletter. Reddit has announced that it will begin verifying user ages in the U.K. before enabling access to restricted subreddits, in line with evolving U.K. laws, which could also expand to other regions. In the U.K., the new Online Safety Act requires that all platforms implement measures to prevent children from accessing age-inappropriate content. As a result, beginning this week, Reddit says that it will begin verifying user ages, via third-party platform Persona, to abide by these new regulations. As explained by Reddit: 'Reddit was built on the principle that you shouldn't need to share personal information to participate in meaningful discussions. Unlike platforms that are identity-based and cater to the famous (or those that want to become famous), Reddit has always favored upvoting great posts and comments by people who use whimsical usernames and not their real name. These conversations are often more candid and real than those that force you to share your real-world identity. However, while we still don't want to know who you are on Reddit, there are certainly situations where it would be helpful if we knew a little more about you.' For example, whether you're actually a human being. Reddit recently found itself in the firing line after it was revealed that researchers had unleashed a swarm of AI bots into the r/changemyview subreddit, in order to test whether AI bots were better at swaying people's opinions than actual humans (note: they are). Which produced some interesting findings, but Reddit users were less-than-enthused about being manipulated by AI bots, without any knowledge or note about those interactions. Reddit has since been working on various solutions to address this, with identity checks, via a third party, now viewed as another option to assure people of humanity. Though age checking is the main focus, while Reddit also notes that the U.K. is not alone on this front, with a growing number of jurisdictions now developing laws that will require platforms to verify the ages of their users. As such, this is likely an inevitable, broader shift either way, and Reddit's just getting ahead of it, and killing two birds with one stone, with all users, in all regions, set to potentially be subject to the same. 'We've tried to do this in a way that protects the privacy of UK redditors. To verify your age, we partner with a trusted third-party provider (Persona) who performs the verification on either an uploaded selfie or a photo of your government ID. Reddit will not have access to the uploaded photo, and Reddit will only store your verification status along with the birthdate you provided so you won't have to re-enter it each time you try to access restricted content. Persona promises not to retain the photo for longer than 7 days and will not have access to your Reddit data such as the subreddits you visit.' Your birthdate also won't be visible to other users or advertisers, and will only be used to support safety features and age-appropriate experiences on Reddit. Video age-checking has emerged as the most accurate and workable solution for age verification, with the Australian government also testing the same to align with its coming age restrictions on social media use. Though Reddit has also reportedly explored the use of eye-scanning to detect user identity. That could be a more viable option in future, but right now, Reddit's going with video selfie checks to ensure it aligns with local requirements. Which will be criticized by Redditors, but again, could be an inevitable change either way. Though it is interesting to see Reddit go from the app that exposed thousands of celebrity nudes, to the first platform to implement more thorough age checks. Recommended Reading Clubhouse Looks to More Private Sharing as it Seeks to Regain its Growth Mojo
The Sun
3 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
Huge app loved by 23 million Brits forces users to prove their age by showing ID or face BLOCK
A MAJOR social media app used by millions of Brits daily is introducing new age verification checks due to a new UK law. The Online Safety Act forces social media sites with access to adult content to verify the age of users from July 24. Platforms that fall foul of the new law risk being slapped with hefty fines and could even be banned from the UK. A number of popular porn sites including PornHub have already confirmed they will introduce new verification checks to comply with the overhaul. And now Reddit has revealed it too is making changes, coming into effect immediately. "We have tried to do this in a way that protects the privacy of UK redditors," the tech firm said. Going forward, users will need to submit a selfie or a photo of your government ID to gain access to adult subreddit pages. Reddit is using a third-party provider called Persona to do the checks and says the company "promises not to retain the photo for longer than 7 days and will not have access to your Reddit data such as the subreddits you visit". Regulator Ofcom will be responsible for checking websites comply with the new rules. "Society has long protected youngsters from products that aren't suitable for them, from alcohol to smoking or gambling," said Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom Group Director of Online Safety. "But for too long children have been only a click away from harmful pornography online. 'Now, change is happening. These age checks will bring pornography into line with how we treat adult services in the real world, without compromising access and privacy for over-18s."
