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.
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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
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] 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.