Age-Verification Debates Should Center on Tech Advancements, Experts Say
Policy debates about age verification methods and privacy should be informed by recent developments in technology, not the assumption that privacy and security are always at odds, Luke Hogg, director of technology policy, and Evan Swarztrauber, senior fellow, Foundation for American Innovation, said in a research paper posted Tuesday.
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“Critics of digital age verification often cite risks to privacy, anonymity, and economic feasibility,” the paper's summary said. “However, modern verification technologies address these concerns by eliminating the need for centralized data storage and offering decentralized, secure solutions. Policymakers seeking to implement age verification requirements can leverage technological progress to develop systems that balance child safety with user privacy.”
The research paper's aim was to provide a survey of the movement toward stronger age-verification systems and the technological advancements that could make these methods privacy-preserving, the authors wrote. In addition, they wanted to refute arguments that age-verification violates privacy and increases data security vulnerabilities, as "such assertions are misleading at best and in many instances patently false."
Problems with the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) prompted a recent push on the state level for age-verification rules, Hogg and Swarztrauber said. “A 1993 New Yorker cartoon quipped that on the internet, no one knows if you are a dog; today, no one knows if you are a minor, either."
Age verification is necessary, they said, yet “simple attestation has proved to be totally ineffective, and other rudimentary methods, such as requiring government-issued IDs, often compromise user privacy by exposing excessive personal information and bar individuals who lack government-issued identification.”
Advancements in cryptology, such as zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and distributed technologies like blockchains have increased the potential of privacy-preserving age verification, the paper said. “ZKPs allow a user to verify some fact about themselves without giving up any information other than that the fact is true,” Hogg and Swarztrauber said. Owing to "increased computational power, improvements in algorithms, and the emergence of blockchain and other distributed computing technologies,” ZKPs are a practical, real-world solution.
Technological advancements in AI and biometrics also allow age to be estimated without storing identifiable data or information about a user, the authors said. Such tech can be used together for age verification, and most verification vendors ensure that no personal identifying information ever leaves the users’ device, Hogg and Swarztrauber wrote.
“Blanket assertions that age verification systems violate user privacy and introduce unique privacy and cybersecurity risks are incorrect in today’s world,” said the authors. “The internet and its associated technologies have changed dramatically since the early 2000s, for good and for ill. The policy conversation around age verification should change accordingly.”