Technologies

Welcome to the Era of Online Age Verification. Are You Ready to Identify Yourself?

The introduction of the UK’s Online Safety Act marks a shift in internet culture, the ripples of which are already being felt around the world.

Last Thursday morning I woke up to find I no longer had access to my messages on social network Bluesky. «You must complete age assurance in order to access this screen,» a pop-up notification told me.

It went on to say the local laws where I live mean that I need to verify I’m an adult to view mature content or send direct messages. I’m based in the UK, and the law Bluesky was referring to is the Online Safety Act, which came into force on Friday.

This piece of legislation requires web companies to ensure that people under the age of 18 don’t have access to harmful content, including porn and material relating to self-harm, suicide and eating disorders. If sites choose to allow this content, they must verify the ages of people using their platforms to confirm that they’re adults. Failure to do so could result in fines of £18 million or 10% of annual revenue, whichever is greater.

«Prioritising clicks and engagement over children’s online safety will no longer be tolerated in the UK,» Melanie Dawes, chief executive of regulator Ofcom, said in a statement. «Our message to tech firms is clear — comply with age-checks and other protection measures set out in our Codes, or face the consequences.»

Over the past few days, free VPNs shot to the top of the UK App Store charts as people have looked for ways to bypass the requirement to verify their ages. It should be noted that using free VPNs comes with it own set of risks, and isn’t recommended by online security experts.

The Online Safety Act might be a UK-specific law, but it affects companies based in the US and around the world, including Bluesky, Reddit, Discord, X, Porn Hub and Grindr — all of which have committed to «age-gating» features to protect young people from stumbling across harmful content.

It’s also emblematic of a bigger shift in internet culture, which is seeing age verification become a mainstream concern across the world. Increasingly, adults who want to keep accessing internet services, from mainstream social networks to porn sites, will have to prove their age. In other words, expect my Bluesky experience to be coming to the internet near you soon.

Earlier this month, the European Commission published an age verification app prototype that will help keep young people safe online in accordance with the EU’s Digital Services Act. We’re also starting to see the ripple effect in the US of the legislation the UK and EU have enacted, says Vaishnavi J, founder of online child safety consultancy Vys. Just last month, the US Supreme Court upheld a Texas law requiring porn sites to verify the age of all visitors.

«State laws, advocacy campaigns, and growing parental demand in the US are all converging around the need for age assurance,» said J, who previously worked in the policy teams at Meta and Twitter. «Combine that with rapid advances in the tech ecosystem, and it’s no longer a question of if the US adopts age verification, but how and when.»

Safety vs. privacy

The Wild West nature of the internet and the ability to be largely anonymous often blurs the lines between spaces occupied by children and adults in a way that doesn’t happen in the offline world. This means children are often exposed to content many would consider inappropriate or harmful. According to Ofcom’s own research, around 1 in 10 children in the UK between the ages of 8 and 14 have watched online pornography — an activity the new age verification rules are designed to prevent.

Making the internet safer for children might be necessary and admirable, but age verification policies have also come under fire from digital rights and privacy groups.

I’ve been covering the UK’s attempts to bring in age verification since 2016. The government at the time decided it was too difficult and ultimately decided not to push ahead with plans aimed at age-gating porn sites in 2019.

The main objection to the legislation was the same then as it is now. Asking people to share their government-issued identification with private companies poses a threat to their privacy.

«The British public is being forced to hand over sensitive personal data to unregulated age assurance providers if they want to have full access to platforms such as Reddit and Bluesky or to use dating apps such as Grindr,» said James Baker, head of programming at Open Rights Group, in a statement ahead of the Online Safety Act coming into force.

«The threats and harms of phishing and hacking are very real, and will cause people online harms,» he added.

Open Rights Group also criticized the fact that people aren’t being given the right to choose how they verify their age. A number of verification methods exist, including age estimation via video selfie (a method gaming platform Roblox announced it was introducing last week), banking or credit card checks, third-party digital ID services, mobile carrier checks or photo ID matching. It’s up to the individual service which method they want to adopt, which could leave people vulnerable to problematic privacy policies.

As with many internet rules, there’s always some level of tradeoff involved when making the online world safe. In many ways, the idea of age verification is «common sense,» Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat, tech policy adviser at NYU’s Stern Business School, wrote in a blog post this week. At the same time, she added, depending on regulations and methods chosen, age verification can introduce serious privacy, security and access risks.

«In some cases, the systems employed are so flawed that they fail to protect minors while also excluding adults who should have lawful access,» said Rosenblat. «Policymakers must understand and carefully weigh these tradeoffs before mandating age verification at scale.»

Many critics of age verification have also argued that verification will be ineffective due to the wide availability of VPNs and teens’ ability to circumvent any rules attempting to limit their internet use.

Whether age verification is truly effective at keeping kids safe online is a question that can only be answered as the Online Safety Act and similar legislation comes into force. In the meantime, I — and possibly you — will need to be prepared to prove our identities and our ages if we’re to continue using the internet in the way we’ve become accustomed to using it.

Technologies

Roblox Rolls Out Age-Verification Requirement for Chat Amid Child Safety Criticism

The age-verification tool estimates a player’s age to put them into a specific group before they can chat online.

Roblox, the online gaming platform that has been under fire due to child safety concerns, has introduced age-verification software that uses facial scanning to estimate the age of players.

The system is currently voluntary, but by the first week of December it will be a requirement in Australia, the Netherlands and New Zealand in order for players to chat with others online. By early January, players in all Roblox markets, including the US, will be required to use the software if they want to engage in chats with other players. Roblox said it has also launched a Safety Center hub with information for parents and parental control tools.

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Roblox says the age-verification system is being put in place to limit contact between adults and children, which has been a chief concern among child-safety advocates.

However, while some experts expressed optimism about Roblox’s changes, they disagreed on whether the new features go far enough for the platform and whether Roblox’s reputation can be repaired.

How it works

Roblox’s new age-verification feature takes a 3D scan of a player’s face, using a webcam or a mobile device’s camera, to estimate the person’s age. Based on that estimate, a player can use online chat with other players in their age group.

In a video about the software, Roblox says it immediately deletes captured images or video after the age check is complete.

The age check is performed by a vendor of Roblox called Persona.

Once they complete the check, players are grouped into the following age categories: under 9, 9–12, 13–15, 16–17, 18–20, or 21 and over. The company said that those under 9 won’t be allowed to chat without parental permission. The chats won’t be strictly limited to those age groups, necessarily. Roblox said players «can chat only with peers in their group or similar groups, as appropriate.»

A representative for Roblox said in an email to CNET that the technology should not be considered facial recognition because it’s not being used to identify a particularly person, only to estimate their age.

The company said it’s also taking measures such as restricting media sharing among players and using AI to monitor chats.

Ongoing controversy

One of the aims of the launch, which was first announced in the summer, was to address criticism that the platform has not adequately protected underage Roblox players. The criticism comes at a time when Roblox is more popular than ever, having broken its own records this year for the number of players on its platform at the same time. It’s estimated to have about 380 million active monthly users.

Roblox is currently facing dozens of lawsuits related to claims of sexual abuse and child exploitation from families of children who played Roblox. It is also the target of investigations or lawsuits from states including Florida, Texas, Louisiana and Kentucky.

Roblox was dealt a setback earlier this month when a California judge declined the company’s motion to move one of these suits into private resolution.

The company says its safety features are moving beyond what other game platforms offer to protect minors.

According to a corporate post about the safety features: «Roblox is the first online gaming or communication platform to require facial age checks to access chat, establishing what we believe will become a new industry standard.»

The online streaming platform Twitch is also introducing an age scan feature, but so far only in England.
In response to the Roblox and Twitch changes, Anna Lucas, online safety supervision director at the British regulatory agency Ofcom, said, «We’re pleased that children will be better protected from harmful material and predators on Twitch and Roblox. Under the UK’s online safety laws, platforms must now take steps to keep kids safe, and we’re ensuring they meet their responsibilities. There’s more to do, but change is happening.»

What’s next for Roblox?

Experts CNET spoke with in areas including child privacy and safety, online marketing and tech viewed the steps Roblox is taking as positive, But there’s wide disagreement on whether the company is going far enough with its protections.

«Roblox’s new age-verification tools are encouraging, but from a parenting standpoint, they’re just one part of the safety puzzle,» said Dr. Scott Kollins, a clinical psychologist and chief medical officer at Aura, an online safety app. «The real question for families is whether these features meaningfully improve kids’ day-to-day experience on the platform. Age verification is a step forward, but children still need guardrails and clear explanations about how online interactions work.»

Kollins said that active parenting needs to take place before kids log on to Roblox in addition to the company designing its product with safety in mind.

Stephen Balkam, founder and CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute, called the age-verification «a hugely important step» in the direction of making Roblox a safer platform. He said he hoped other online platforms might follow Roblox.

«My only hope is that in the long term, Roblox’s age assurance methods become interoperable with other gaming and kid-focused sites and platforms, so parents and kids only have to go through the verification process once,» Balkam said.

Like Kollins, Balkam emphasized the importance of parental involvement, since no site is entirely safe.

«Set family rules, use parental controls and have regular conversations with your kids,» he said. «So, no, don’t ban Roblox, but use their industry-leading tools and keep the lines of communication open and your kids should be able to have a fun and creative time.»

Liability and trust

Some experts also view the changes as a way to mitigate the company’s reputational damage and address legal challenges.

The age verification is «not a silver bullet,» said Paromita Pain, associate professor of media studies at the University of Nevada, Reno.

«Even a very strong safety revamp doesn’t erase that record, but it does give Roblox a narrative: ‘We heard you, we’re now at or above industry standard, so future risk is sharply reduced,’ » Pain said.

The moves, Pain said, could rebuild trust, but many parents will see age checks as coming too late. Pain said that the company should adopt independent audits of child-safety practices, make its parental and teen controls stricter by default and commit to «safety by design» by making systemwide changes on private servers and environment designs.

The current changes won’t fix things for Roblox, she said. «Only sustained, independently-verifiable changes—and probably some large settlements—will do that.»

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Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Nov. 19, #422

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Nov. 19, No. 422.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition features a blue category that I think is a real stumper, unless you’re familiar with one certain phrase. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Splish-splash.

Green group hint: Hoopsters.

Blue group hint: Get in shape.

Purple group hint: Vroom-vroom.