The case for online age checks builds, along with attendant privacy worries

Access to pornography on mobile devices by people who have not yet reached puberty is a significant causal factor in increased sexual violence among young people, according to a new report from Spain’s Attorney General’s Office (FGE), reports El Pais.

Authorities in the country are concerned that the lack of regulatory equivalence with other mass media systems is allowing the problem to fester. Age verification could be an antidote, and the measure is raised by Spain’s Law on Childhood and Adolescence. The Law on Personal Data Protection and Guarantee of Digital Rights requires platforms to avoid processing the data of people under 14 years old under any circumstances, and make reasonable efforts to verify the validity of validity of consent by those 14 and older.

Governments around the world are grappling with the tension between digital privacy and restricting access to pornography by minors.

MIT Technology Review reviews the trend of dozens of state bills being proposed across the United States, some of which would increase privacy protections, while others would remove them.

Some of those bills are likely to face legal challenges and others are unenforceable, according to the report. Legislative proposals are also prompting more conversation around parental oversight, and could collide with the lack of overall digital privacy regulation in the U.S., as young people whose data privacy is protected due to their age will eventually become adults will less protections, while their data may still be held by pornographers and other corporations.

Yoti published a white paper on facial age estimation and its potential to address the tension between age protections and privacy earlier this month.

UK expands ISO accreditations

The UK Age Check Certification Services Ltd. has been granted additional accreditation for ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015 – Conformity Assessment, Tony Allen, CEO of certification schemes for digital identity, age assurance and age appropriate design announced in a LinkedIn post.

The accreditation was performed by the UK Accreditation Service. It enables UK ACCS to undertake accredited certification of the ISO/IEC 27001 standard for information security management systems, according to Allen. The organization also provides accreditation for data protection, privacy and age appropriate design, age and ID assurance testing and certification, and FIDO Document Authenticity Programme testing.

The head of the UK’s Age Verification Providers Association recently discussed the surge in demand for age assurance and the related privacy issues in a Liminal podcast.

Article Topics

Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS)  |  age verification  |  data privacy  |  legislation  |  regulation