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The Age-Checked Internet Has Arrived
Starting today, UK adults will have to prove their age to access porn online. Experts warn that a global wave of age-check laws threatens to chill speech and ultimately harm children and adults alike.
Under sweeping new online child safety laws coming into force, self-reporting checkboxes that allow anyone to claim adulthood on porn websites will be replaced by age-estimating face scans, ID document uploads, credit card checks, and more. “The question isn't whether there will be a data breach connected to age verification, it's when,” says Alison Boden, executive director of Free Speech Coalition, a US-based adult entertainment industry trade association. And since people can use circumvention tools like VPNs to skirt national laws, there are limits to how effective these policies can be in isolation, which has the potential to tip off a sort of validation and surveillance arms race.
Or read this on Wired
