Who’s checking the age checkers?

Websites will soon be forced to check visitors’ ages. But as Barry Collins discovers, there are precious few checks on the age-verification services

In the not-too-distant future, we will all need to pass an age-verification test to access a broad swathe of websites. Not only “adult” sites, but social media services, sites associated with violent video games, basically anything that contains content that might be deemed harmful to children. Queuing up to profit from these government-mandated checks are a whole host of age-verification providers, who will use a variety of methods to assess the age of visitors, including AI tools that estimate someone’s age by simply looking at them through their webcam. But who’s verifying the age-verification firms? Who will ensure that the companies collecting this highly sensitive data are doing so securely and with maximum safeguards in place for people’s privacy? Who will check that their age-verification methods are even reliable? In short, the…

You're reading a preview of

PC Pro (Digital) - 1 Issue, August 2024

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.