The road to hell, as they say, is paved with good intentions. In the UK, that road is apparently a superhighway leading directly to the very websites its new Online Safety Act was designed to block. New data reveals the country’s ambitious age-verification law is having the exact opposite of its intended effect, acting as a case study in what can go wrong when policy gets ahead of technological and social reality.
Key Takeaways
- Since the UK began enforcing its Online Safety Act, pornography sites that don’t comply with new age-check rules have seen dramatic traffic surges, while compliant sites are losing visitors.
- This is part of a global trend, with governments in the U.S., Australia, and the EU pushing similar age-gating laws to shield minors from adult or “harmful” content.
- The technology being used for verification—from ID uploads to AI-powered face scans—is plagued with issues, including racial and gender bias, unreliability, and major security vulnerabilities.
- Critics warn these laws threaten to end online anonymity, creating a “split internet” that burdens smaller platforms and raises significant free speech and privacy concerns for all users.
The British Boomerang Effect
When the UK started enforcing its Online Safety Act, the idea was simple: force websites with adult content to verify their users are over 18 using methods like face scans or driver’s licenses. But as reported by TechCrunch, early results are looking less like a success and more like a farce.
A Washington Post analysis of the top 90 porn sites in the UK found that the 14 sites that completely ignored the law saw their traffic skyrocket—in one case, doubling year-over-year. It appears that when faced with the friction of proving their age, users are simply flocking to sites that don’t ask questions. It’s like a nightclub that installs a state-of-the-art ID scanner at the front door, only to find all its customers have gone to the speakeasy next door that has no bouncer at all.
This isn’t just user behavior; even sites that are trying to comply are doing so begrudgingly, some linking to petitions for the law’s repeal or even posting instructions on how to get around the checks. John Scott-Railton, a researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, called it “a textbook illustration of the law of unintended consequences,” noting the law actively “suppresses traffic to compliant platforms while driving users to sites without age verification.”
A Global Push for Digital IDs
This isn’t just a quirky British problem. The push to age-gate the internet is a global phenomenon. In the U.S., more than 20 states have passed some form of age verification law, and the Supreme Court recently allowed laws in Texas and Mississippi to stand. Down under, Australia is preparing to ban social media for anyone under 16, giving platforms until December to figure out enforcement or face massive fines.
The motivation, as Cato Institute fellow Jennifer Huddleston points out, comes “from a place of good intentions.” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared that platforms “have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority.”
But these well-meaning policies are creating a messy and burdensome reality for online platforms. The social media site Bluesky, for example, pulled out of Mississippi entirely after the state required it to verify every single user, not just those accessing adult content. The company argued the law “creates significant barriers that limit free speech and disproportionately harm smaller platforms.”
The Trouble with Tech-as-Nanny
So how are companies supposed to enforce these rules? The methods are a grab bag of technological solutions, each with its own serious flaws. Some platforms like Roblox require users to upload a photo ID and undergo a face scan. Others, like Instagram and Google’s YouTube, are testing AI systems to estimate a user’s age based on their posts or viewing history.
The problem is, the technology is far from perfect. A government-commissioned report in Australia found that AI age-estimation software had “unacceptable” levels of inaccuracy, especially for “non-Caucasian users and female-presenting individuals” near the age cutoff. An AI might be great at telling a 40-year-old from a 12-year-old, but it struggles in the “grey zone” of telling a 15-year-old from a 16-year-old.
Worse still are the privacy and security implications. Requiring users to upload sensitive documents to countless websites is a security nightmare waiting to happen. We don’t have to wait, actually—it already has. As several outlets reported, the app Tea, which required women to upload IDs to verify their gender, suffered a data breach. The company was supposed to delete the files but didn’t, allowing hackers to access not only ID images but also users’ private messages.
Why It Matters
The scramble to age-gate the internet represents a fundamental crossroads for the web. For three decades, one of the internet’s core tenets has been the ability to browse, learn, and speak anonymously. Age verification laws, however well-intentioned, threaten to dismantle that principle. As critics note, “the only way to make sure that we are age verifying anyone under the age of 18 is to also age verify everyone over the age 18.”
This effectively ends online anonymity. Jason Kelley of the Electronic Frontier Foundation warns this is creating a “split happening between the internet that people who are willing to identify themselves… can see and the rest of the internet.” This isn’t just about walling off porn; vague legal definitions of “harmful to minors” could require you to prove your age to read a news article, research health information, or participate in a community forum.
What’s at stake is the very nature of the internet itself. Are we moving toward a permission-based system, where access to information is predicated on surrendering your identity at every digital door? The early, and frankly backward, results from the UK suggest that not only is this a dangerous path for privacy and free speech, it might not even work to protect the very people it’s designed to help.
Conclusion
The goal of protecting children online is one that nearly everyone shares. But the current global strategy of mandatory age verification seems to be a cure that’s worse than the disease. It’s technically flawed, a privacy landmine, and as the UK’s experiment shows, it can backfire by pushing users toward the darkest, least-regulated corners of the web. As other countries barrel toward similar policies, the mess unfolding in the UK should serve as less of a roadmap and more of a flashing red warning light.
Sources
- TechCrunch: UK age check law seems to be hurting sites that comply, helping those that don’t
- ABC News: Online age checks are proliferating. But critics wonder about the cost to internet freedom
- Reuters: Australian report raises concerns over age verification software ahead of teen social media ban
- NBC New York: Age checks proliferate online, while critics wonder cost to internet freedom
- AP News: Online age checks are on the rise, but so are concerns about a less free and private internet
