Age verification system

An age verification system, also known as an age gate, is any technical system that externally verifies a person's age. These systems are used primarily to restrict access to content classified, either voluntarily or by local laws, as being inappropriate for users under a specific age, such as alcohol, tobacco, gambling, video games with objectionable content, pornography, or to remain in compliance with online privacy laws that regulate the collection of personal information from minors, such as COPPA in the United States.^[1]

Age verification substantially increased in 2023-2024, with the passage of the Online Safety Act 2023 in the UK, a law in France,^[2] laws in eight U.S. states including Texas and Utah,^[3] and proposals at the federal level in the US, Canada,^[4] Denmark,^[5] and the EU.^[6]

The most basic form of age verification is to asks a person to input their date of birth on a form. However, this depends on an honor system that assumes the validity of the end user (which can be a minor who fraudulently inserts a valid date that meets the age criteria, rather than their own), and has thus been described as ineffective.^[7][8]

Age verification systems requiring people to provide credit card information depend on an assumption that the vast majority of credit card holders are adults, because U.S. credit card companies did not originally issue cards to minors.^[8] Additionally, a minor may still attempt to obtain their parent's credit card information, or defraud users into divulging their credit card number to an individual to use for their own purposes, defeating the stated purpose of the system.^[9][10]

In 2005, Salvatore LoCascio pleaded guilty to charges of credit card fraud; one of his schemes had involved using credit card-based age verification systems to charge users for "free" tours of adult entertainment websites.^[11]

Aylo, a major operator of porn websites, operates an age verification provider known as AgeID. First introduced in Germany in 2015, it uses third-party providers to authenticate the user's age, and a single sign-on model that allows the verified identity to be shared across any participating website.^[12][13]

The Australian government has proposed the use of facial recognition against official identification photos.^[14]

Facial age estimation uses machine learning to estimate the user's age by analysing their facial features in a selfie while ensuring that they are a real person and not a photograph or wearing a mask by using a liveness test.

Zero-Knowledge proofs verify a person's age without disclosing their identity, either to the receiver, such as a business, or the verifying entity, like a government that issues a passport.^[15]

The adult-oriented video game franchise Leisure Suit Larry presented players with trivia questions that, in the opinion of franchise creator Al Lowe, a child would not know the answer to (such as, for example, "All politicians are: a. hard-working, b. honest, c. on the public payroll"), in order to launch the game (although this can be bypassed with a keyboard shortcut).^[16]

Australia intended to implement requirements for age verification under the Online Safety Act 2021. In August 2023, minister of communications Michelle Rowland released a report by eSafety that indicated that recommended against such a scheme, finding that "at present, each type of age verification or age assurance technology comes with its own privacy, security, effectiveness or implementation issue", and suggesting that an industry code be adopted to promote the use of content filtering software to parents.^[17]

In May 2024, the federal government allocated A$6.5 million from the 2024 Australian federal budget to a pilot age verification scheme meant to protect children from accessing pornography and other harmful digital content in response to a sharp rise in domestic violence nationally.^[18][19]

On 10 September 2024, Albanese and Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland confirmed that the federal government would introduce legislation to enforce a minimum age for access to social media and other relevant digital platforms. The federal government would also work with states and territorial governments to develop a uniform framework. Albanese said that the legislation was intended to safeguard the safety and mental and physical health of young people while Rowland said that the proposed legislation would hold big tech to account for harmful online environments and social media addiction among children.^[20] The minimum age is likely to be set between 14 and 16 years of age. The federal government's announcement followed South Australia's plan to restrict social media access to people aged 14 and above, and the Coalition's promise to restrict social media access to people aged 16 if it won the 2025 Australian federal election.^[21]

The federal government's moves to impose a social media age limit was supported by New South Wales Premier Chris Minns, South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and Queensland Premier Steven Miles. The Coalition's communications spokesman David Coleman said social media age verification should be limited to those aged 16 and above.^[22] In response, the Australian Association of Psychologists director Carly Dober described the Government's proposed social media age limit as a "bandaid response to a very complicated and deeply entrenched issue." She also said that the ban ignored the benefits that online spaces could offer to young people, especially those from marginalised communities.^[22] Similar criticism was echoed by Daniel Angus, director of the Queensland University of Technology Digital Media Research Centre, and the Australian Internet regulator, the eSafety Commissioner, who expressed concern that a social media ban would exclude young people from "meaningful" digital engagement and access to critical support.^[23]

On 7 November, Prime Minister Albanese confirmed that the government would introduce legislation in November to ban young people under the age of 16 from using social media. The proposed legislation would not include exemptions for young people who already have social media accounts or those with parental consent.^[24] The children's advocacy group Australian Child Rights Taskforce criticised the proposed law as a "blunt instrument" and urged the Albanese government to instead impose safety standards on social media platforms. By contrast, the 36Months initiative has supported the social media age limit on the grounds that excessive social media usage was "rewiring young brains" and causing an "epidemic of mental illness."^[25]

On 21 November, the Albanese government introduced legislation that would ban young people under the age of 16 from accessing social media and proposed fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$32 million) on social media platforms for systemic breaches. The proposed law would affect Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and Snapchat. However, Albanese confirmed that children would still have access to messaging, online gaming, and health and education-related services including the youth mental health platform Headspace, Google Classroom and YouTube. The opposition Liberals intend to support the legislation while the Australian Greens have sought more details on the proposed law.^[26]

The proposed legislation Bill S-210—which passed the Senate in 2023 and began committee review in the House of Commons in late-May 2024, would prohibit organizations from making "sexually explicit" material available on the internet for commercial purposes to users under the age of 18, unless an age verification system is implemented, or the content has a legitimate artistic, educational, or scientific purpose.^[27][28][29] The bill has been criticized for privacy implications, not specifically specifying a required form of age verification, and freedom of expression concerns surrounding its scope—which can include social networking and online video services, and allow for blocking of entire websites to users in Canada if they do not comply with orders issued under the bill—even if the rest of the content is otherwise non-pornographic.^[30][28]

On August 30, 2021, the State Press and Publication Administration issued the Notice of the State Press and Publication Administration on Further Strict Management to Effectively Prevent Minors from Being Addicted to Online Games, which stipulates that all online game enterprises may only provide online game services to minors for one hour from 20:00 to 21:00 daily on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, and may not provide online game services to minors in any form at other times.^[31]

In Germany age verification systems are mandated by the "Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag" which was introduced in September 2002.^[32] The institution in charge KJM considers only systems equivalent to face-to-face verification as sufficient for age verification.^[33]

With the passing of the Digital Economy Act 2017, the United Kingdom passed a law containing a legal mandate on the provision of age verification. Under the act, websites that publish pornography on a commercial basis would have been required to implement a "robust" age verification system.^[34][35] The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) was charged with enforcing this legislation.^[12][13][36] After a series of setbacks and public backlash, the planned scheme was eventually abandoned in 2019.^[37]

While the UK government abandoned this legislation, age verification continues to be monitored and enforced by regulatory bodies including Ofcom^[38] and the ICO.^[39] Other standards are emerging for age assurance systems, such as PAS1296:2018.^[40] The ISO standard for age assurance systems (PWI 7732) is also being developed by the Age Check Certificate Scheme, the Age Verification Providers’ Association, and other Conformity Assessment Bodies.^[41]

Some websites of alcoholic beverage companies attempt to verify the age of visitors so that they can confirm they are at least the American legal drinking age of 21.^[42]

In 2000, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) took effect at the federal level, resulting in some websites adding age verification for visitors under the age of 13, and some websites disallowing accounts for users under the age of 13. Companies such as YouTube and ByteDance have received large fines from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for not complying with COPPA.

In 2022, Louisiana became the first state to require age verification for accessing adult websites. Usage of LA Wallet, the state's digital ID and mobile drivers license app, subsequently spiked, as LA Wallet allows for remote identification via MindGeek, the owner of many major porn sites.

In 2023, several states, including Arkansas^[43] and Utah,^[44] passed social media addiction bills requiring users of social media platforms to be over the age of 18 or have parental consent, with these bills prescribing that age verification be used to enforce this requirement.^[44][43] One such bill is the Utah Social Media Regulation Act, which is scheduled to take effect in 2024, and attempts to prevent minors from using social media from 10:30 PM to 6:30 AM.

In May 2023, a law passed in Utah requiring that pornography websites verify the ages of their visitors, although it has a clause that bars it from taking effect until five other states also implement similar measures.^[45] A few days before the law passed, in order to protest the bill, Pornhub blocked their website from being viewed in Utah.^[45] The trade group Free Speech Coalition filed a lawsuit against the state of Utah, claiming the law violated the First Amendment. The lawsuit was dismissed by US District Court Judge Ted Stewart on August 1, 2023; however, the Free Speech Coalition stated they would appeal this ruling.^[46][47]

In contrast, on August 31, 2023, US District Judge David Ezra invalidated a Texas law passed in June mandating age verification and health warnings before accessing pornographic websites following a lawsuit from the Free Speech Coalition, and barred the state attorney general's office from enforcing the law on the grounds that it violates the right to free speech and is overly broad and vague. The Texas Attorney General's office stated they would appeal the ruling.^[48][49] The 5th Circuit federal court of appeal overturned the injunction pending a full hearing.^[50] The Free Speech Coalition petitioned to the Supreme Court to hear the case, which certified the case to be heard during its 2024-2025 term.^[51]

The sector is represented by the Age Verification Providers Association^[52] which was founded in 2018 and had grown to have 27 members by 2023.^[53]

• Real-name system
• Digital identity