As governments across the world charge ahead with age-verification laws, a well-intentioned rush to protect children is actually putting them at risk.
The goal is to shield children from harmful materials, but these laws lack sufficient safeguards to protect privacy. All it takes is a single data breach, and a law intended to protect children could end up exposing their sensitive personal information to the world.
To be sure, children deserve an internet that they can navigate safely. But explicit content and predatory social media are not the only dangers online. Privacy violations, especially for the young, can also do serious harm. Especially since, as the old warning goes, “The internet is forever.”
We should not accept simply trading one risk for another.
How the risks could affect kids
To verify their ages online, users are often asked to submit government IDs, credit card numbers, selfies, or unique biometric information. When breaches happen — and they do, with depressing regularity — that sensitive data is exposed.
What’s more, many companies outsource their age-verification services to a handful of third-party vendors. Those suppliers, as storehouses of the data, become all-too-tempting targets for hackers and criminals. Without sufficient policies on data minimization, usage, storage, and privacy, user data remains deeply vulnerable.
In September, a cyberattack compromised a third-party vendor(новое окно) for Discord, a video game chat platform, granting the attacker access to at least 70,000 images of government-issued IDs(новое окно), including passports and licenses.
Discord had been collecting photos of IDs in compliance with the UK’s age-verification law, which took effect in July.
Since the implementation of the law, the UK’s Office of Communications reported(новое окно) that “many records were not consistent” with record-keeping and review guidance. Many companies also failed to show how they were taking responsibility for online safety risks.
This breach highlights the real-life consequences of online attacks. As age-verification laws gain traction on a larger scale, an emphasis should be placed on privacy. Protecting sensitive personal information makes the internet a safer place for everyone, including children.
The need for balance
The rush to prioritize age checks for minors without prioritizing secure methods of verification create additional cybersecurity risks that can put children in harm’s way. As governments make premature decisions about these technologies, they are opening a Pandora’s box for hackers and cybercriminals to mine at their leisure.
Moving forward, governments and legislatures must be thoughtful about the technologies they employ and the risks they come with. Policymakers should prioritize decentralized solutions that protect minors against the real threat of cyberattacks, without compromising users’ anonymity and right to privacy.
