Concerns have been raised about the potential privacy implications of these new measures. Ofcom's own research found that 42% of UK adults are worried about having to share personal information to access legal adult content. The Open Rights Group has also warned that age verification technologies could lead to sensitive personal data being breached, collected, shared, or sold, with potentially catastrophic consequences.
Key takeaways:
- The UK's Office of Communications (Ofcom) is planning to introduce 'age assurance' systems on adult sites to verify and/or estimate user ages, with potential fines for sites that fail to protect minors from accessing pornography.
- One of the proposed age-check methods includes 'facial age estimation', which would require users to take a selfie to access adult content.
- Ofcom acknowledges that there is little evidence that the AI method of age estimation will be fair, reliable, or effective, and that it may not be popular due to concerns over sharing personal information.
- There are concerns from digital rights organizations about the potential for sensitive personal data to be breached, collected, shared, or sold, with potential consequences including blackmail, fraud, relationship damage, and the outing of people’s sexual preferences.