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

Reddit Challenges Australia’s Social Media Ban for Those Under 16 in High Court

Two days after announcing it would crank up its safety rules, Reddit is going to court to fight the Australian law.

Reddit, the social media and community chat forum, announced on Thursday that it is challenging Australia’s under-16 social media ban in the country’s High Court.

A statement posted to X said that the new law, which bans Australians aged 15 and younger from using apps such as Reddit, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Snapchat, YouTube, Kick and Twitch, «has the unfortunate effect of forcing intrusive and potentially insecure verification processes on adults as well as minors, isolating teens from the ability to engage in age-appropriate community experiences.»

The move comes just days after the San Francisco-based company implemented age verification measures in Australia.

Initially, Reddit appeared to be complying with the Australian law without resistance. On Tuesday, Reddit said it would verify that new members and current account holders in Australia are at least 16. It also announced that account holders under 18 worldwide will get modified versions of the app that prevent access to NSFW and mature content, with stricter chat settings and no ad personalization or sensitive ads.

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A representative for Reddit did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reddit calls Australian law ‘arbitrary’

Earlier this week, Reddit said the legislation limits free expression and privacy and «is arbitrary, legally erroneous, and goes far beyond the original intent of the Australian Parliament, especially when other obvious platforms are exempt.»

«We believe strongly in the open internet and the continued accessibility of quality knowledge, information, resources, and community building for everyone, including young people,» the Tuesday statement said. «This is why Reddit has always been, and continues to be, available for anyone to read even if they don’t have an account.»

Age verification rules — such as the UK Online Safety Act — are becoming the norm rather than the exception for governments and companies worldwide. The internet is increasingly being filtered to prevent children from accessing certain content online. It’s a battleground where privacy, access to information and online safety are huge factors.

Age prediction and verification

Reddit had earlier stated that it would use an age prediction model to determine if new and existing account holders in Australia are at least 16 years old. If the model predicts that one of their members is under 16, Reddit will request proof of age. As outlined by the company, people must verify their birthdate by providing a government ID or taking a selfie. The company said it would suspend accounts of those it determines to be under 16.

Reddit claimed it would only securely store age information and not the photos or documents used in the verification process. The information would not be visible to advertisers or sold to data brokers, and would reportedly only be used to «enhance content relevance and ad experiences.»

Reddit said it was planning to increase platform safety for those under 18. If you’re under 18, you won’t be permitted to moderate communities dedicated to NSFW or mature content. The site will disable ad personalization, and you will not see ads for alcohol, gambling or other sensitive topics.

Technologies

Trump Signs AI Executive Order Blocking State Regulations

The executive order establishes a federal task force charged with the job of going after state AI laws.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that aims to block state regulations with the goal of creating a national framework for the tech industry to follow.

The Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence executive order says the tech industry must be «free to innovate without cumbersome regulation» as state regulations are creating a patchwork of laws. The order calls out states like Colorado for demanding AI models account for «ideological bias,» which the administration says can lead to «false results» that impact protected groups. The order also says that some state laws regulate beyond state borders, infringing on interstate commerce, which is the domain of the federal government.

The order says it shall ensure that «children are protected, censorship is prevented, copyrights are respected, and communities are safeguarded.» The executive order says it won’t target «lawful state AI laws,» which include child safety protections, data center permitting reforms, government procurement and use of AI, with «other topics as shall be determined.» Beyond that, the order is slim on exact details of what the administration would ultimately try to enforce in regards to AI.

The administration will set up an AI litigation task force within the next 30 days with the goal of challenging state laws. Within the next 90 days, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick must publish a report on existing state laws that go against the executive order or violate the First Amendment, as well as any other parts of the Constitution. The order may also withhold broadband development funding from states.

The executive order is a follow-up to a Truth Social post by the president on Monday.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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«On the heels of Congress correctly deciding for the second time not to pass legislation that would ban states from regulating artificial intelligence, the president should recognize that this is a misguided, unpopular, and dangerous policy choice,» Travis Hall, director for state engagement at the Center for Democracy & Technology, told CNET in a statement.

Hall said the states need to be allowed to safeguard their citizens.

«The power to preempt rests firmly with Congress, and no executive order can change that,» he said. «State lawmakers have an important role to play in protecting their constituents from AI systems that are untrustworthy or unaccountable. They should remain steadfast in responding to the real and documented harms of these systems.»

The report of a new executive order comes as states have been attempting to regulate AI, particularly as the technology infiltrates all aspects of technology and society, with Congress and the Executive Branch seeking to push back.

Some states have passed laws making it a crime to create sexual images of people without their consent. Others have placed restrictions on insurance companies using AI to approve or deny health care claims. Currently, Congress hasn’t passed any legislation regulating AI on a national scale.

Last month, 35 states and the District of Columbia urged Congress not to block state laws regarding AI regulation, warning of «disastrous consequences.» Congress ultimately chose not to interfere earlier this month. Companies, including Google, Meta, OpenAI and Andreessen Horowitz, have been calling for national AI standards rather than litigating across all 50 states.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Technologies

Get Ready to Ride the Light: Diablo 4’s Next Expansion Adds Paladin Class, Revamps the Endgame

A second new class will also be included in the expansion, which focuses on the fight against Mephisto.

Grab your sword and shield, Wanderer — the Paladin is coming to Diablo 4 next year alongside the upcoming Lord of Hatred expansion. The announcement came at this year’s Game Awards, with the Paladin announced as one of two new classes in the expansion. If you’re dying to wield the power of the Light, you can preorder Lord of Hatred and gain immediate access to the Paladin.

The action RPG was released in June of 2023, just a few months before Xbox-maker Microsoft closed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. In October 2024, Blizzard launched the first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, which included the new Spiritborn class and took players to the jungles of Nahantu.

The new Lord of Hatred expansion is set in Skovos — the oldest region in Sanctuary, and the former home of Lilith and Inarius. Players will battle their way through forests, coasts and ruins in a battle against Mephisto, the expansion’s titular greater demon that Diablo series veterans first fought in the third act of Diablo 2.

They’ll be able to fight the great evil as the Paladin, one of the playable classes from Diablo 2, and a much-requested class for Diablo 4.

Here’s what we know so far.

Diablo 4 expansion release date

The Lord of Hatred expansion will be released on April 28, 2026.

New classes in Lord of Hatred

The expansion will come with two new classes. One of them remains a mystery, and we’ll likely have to wait until closer to launch to find out what it is.

But the headliner here is the Paladin class.

Paladins augment medieval armor and heavy weaponry with the holy power of the Light. As a Paladin, you can channel powerful auras, summon Holy weapons to fight enemies and become an indomitable guardian on the battlefield.

Paladins will be able to choose among four oaths, each supporting a different style of play.

Juggernaut: This shield-focused style turns defense into offense and supports tankier tactics.

Zealot: A sword-based oath that focuses on an updated Zeal mechanic and a holy blade ultimate ability.

Judicator: The premier option for inflicting divine punishment through holy conjurations such as Blessed Hammer and Heaven’s Fury.

Disciple: If you want to transform into an angel, spearing through the legions of darkness on wings of holy light, take this oath.

Diablo 4 endgame upgrades

D4 has been criticized for its endgame, particularly for the limited number of activities available to a fully geared character with optimized stats. Lord of Hatred promises to revamp the endgame around player choice with higher challenges and, uh… fishing? I guess even Wanderers need to chill sometimes.

Lord of Hatred will introduce War Plans, which allow players to select preferred activities and enable modifiers as they push for rewards.

The big challenge will be Echoing Hatred, a post-game gauntlet specifically designed to challenge the most optimized builds. Plan your build, grind for loot and see if you can survive the onslaught.

Beyond those additions, the expansion will also rework Diablo 4’s skill trees by expanding level caps and providing variants specific to each of the game’s classes. The game’s crafting system will be upgraded with the Horadric Cube, a legendary artifact that allowed you to transmute items in Diablo 2 to other items via specific recipes. A new Talisman mechanic will add set bonuses to items that can be equipped.

Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred editions

We don’t have pricing details yet, but Lord of Hatred will be available in three editions:

Standard: Includes the earlier Vessel of Hatred expansion, which featured the Spiritborn class.
Deluxe: Both expansions, plus a mini chimera pet, a mount bundle, a cosmetic bundle and a premium battle pass bundle.
Ultimate: All of the above, plus 3,000 Platinum (can be used for cosmetics and battle pass), an armor bundle for six classes, a trophy, town portal skin and more.

Preorders of any edition grant immediate access to the Paladin class.