Article #24398

Demands to upload documents for the purpose of ‘age verification’ is coming to platforms near you

Want to Google your symptoms, join an ICE watch group on Facebook or scroll Reddit? You might need to show ID. Age verification is coming to platforms near you. Worse, it’ll come at the expense of your rights.

More than 25 states, and multiple countries, have enacted laws requiring mixed-audience websites to verify users’ ages to prevent access by children. Some of these laws target adult content providers explicitly while others apply these requirements to a wide array of websites, from Google search to Coursera to the New York Times.

Aliya Bhatia is a senior policy analyst at the Center for Democracy & Technology’s Free Expression Project. She conducts research and policy advocacy on issues related to online protection of minors and multilingual AI