Will online age checks doom internet freedom?

The internet is no longer the Wild West. In the United States and around the world, online age verification laws are being used to keep kids from seeing harmful or age-inappropriate materials — a trend critics say creates a "less secure, less private and less free internet."

More than 20 states have passed verification laws, said The Associated Press. That could have "significant impacts on the speech and privacy rights of adults," said the Cato Institute's Jennifer Huddleston, because the only way to ensure people under 18 are not seeing restricted materials is to "also age verify everyone over the age 18." In the United Kingdom, a new verification law aimed at restricting access to pornography has prompted Reddit, X, Telegram and Bluesky to also implement age checks, said the AP, while Mississippi now requires age checks to access social media sites. The growing restrictions could eventually require users to verify their ages to "access anything, from Netflix to a neighborhood blog."

What did the commentators say?

The "age-gating" laws intended to make the internet safer "actually threaten free speech," the University of Manitoba's Neil McArthur said at The Conversation. While their purpose is "admirable enough," the effort comes with a "massive cost." Many sites require users to upload photos of their government-issued identification cards "without knowing if their data is secure." That exposes the data to leaks and hacks. American states are also using the laws to restrict access to information about "abortion, sexual health and LGBTQ identity." More laws are coming fast. It is "not too late to take a stand against them."

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Age checks are a "long overdue" tool to "bring online adult content in line with offline protections for minors," said Iain Corby, executive director of the Age Verification Providers Association, at The Hill. Americans are already asked to show their IDs to "buy alcohol, enter a casino or watch an R-rated film in a theater." The laws "aren't about banning speech." Instead, they affirm that "some content is for adults only and that children should be protected from harm."

What next?

The new requirements are "potentially driving people to seedier corners of the web," said The Washington Post. After the British law went into effect, traffic to adult sites that required users to prove their age "collapsed," while sites that disregarded the rule have been "rewarded with a flood of traffic." Another result: VPN apps, which allow internet users to "pretend they're logging in from another country," went straight to the top of the U.K.'s app store download charts.

"It's no easy feat" for tech companies to implement age verification, said The Wall Street Journal. A coalition of tech companies is challenging the Mississippi law, while bracing for the possibility that a nationwide age verification law could pass Congress. The tension between privacy and safety will continue. "If companies are going to be required to do age verification," said Aliya Bhatia of the Center for Democracy and Technology to the Journal, "they must do so in a rights-respecting way."