Age verification and social media bans for those under 16 are gaining popularity worldwide, in response to growing concerns about harmful online content.
However, there are significant questions about the effectiveness of enforcement methods. A recent UK report shows that while digital restrictions have reduced children's exposure to harmful content, the problem is still not solved.
A recent investigation by Internet Matters reveals that the UK's Internet Safety Act has had limited effectiveness in preventing minors from accessing social media and adult content.
While some children and parents agree that there should be protections, opinions vary on whether facial scans or government ID checks are the best solution.
In total, 1.270 children aged 9 to 16 and their parents were surveyed, with around 32% admitting to bypassing age checks. The standard method of simply entering a fake date of birth remains the most common. Others include using an adult's device or login credentials, enabling a VPN, and using someone else's identity.
Submitting facial scans for age estimation with random photos is less common. Around a sixth of parents helped their children bypass restrictions, mainly because they trusted their children and the online services they were trying to access.
When the UK began imposing age restrictions on adult websites last year and Australia banned minors from accessing social media, VPN usage skyrocketed. Social networks and other apps, such as Discord and YouTube, also began imposing age checks on certain accounts after Australia and other countries tried to ban minors from accessing social media.
While the UK has not enacted a similar ban, minors are already reporting that they face age verification requirements when creating new accounts. Some services do not completely ban access to users under 16, but do restrict certain features, such as live streaming and instant messaging.
In addition to using other people's faces, some kids have also successfully used video game characters. When Discord started requiring age verification, an app emerged that uses 3D models to bypass the service's facial scans.
A parent in the UK study caught his 12-year-old son wearing a fake mustache, and the age-estimation software guessed he was 15. Previous studies show that while facial scanners are accurate for users over 18, their effectiveness decreases when analyzing the faces of teenagers.
All of this raises concerns about children's safety. One parent in the study was concerned that malicious websites could collect children's personal information using age verification.
Meanwhile, regulators are targeting VPNs, leading to unintended consequences. US lawmakers recently warned that VPN users could attract government surveillance, as networks cannot distinguish whether they are foreign providers.
Utah recently became the first state to pass anti-VPN legislation, and Russia inadvertently cut off bank accounts in an attempt to block VPNs.
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
