Age-Verification Laws Push Users To Unregulated Online Sites

The new age verification rules have pushed users to visit noncompliant websites that put their privacy at risk.

The United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act, which became effective last month, resulted in complete website traffic failure for all adult content sites that followed the new regulations.

The websites that did not follow the law recorded a massive increase in website traffic. A Washington Post analysis reports that some of these websites that defied these rules doubled or tripled their audiences compared to last year.

The shift illustrates a paradox. The law “suppresses traffic to compliant platforms while driving users to sites without age verification,” said John Scott-Railton, a researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, as reported by the Post. “The more the government squeezes, the more they reward the very sites that scoff at their rules,” he added.

Supporters argue the rules are vital to protect children. “Clicking a box that says ‘Yes, I am 18’ is not gonna prevent a 15-year-old boy from going on that website,” said Ohio state Rep. Steve Demetriou, as reported by the Post.

But critics say the system creates privacy risks since users must give commercial platforms access to their personal documents and facial data.

The Post notes that since 2022, the United States has witnessed at least 25 states implementing these types of regulations. The Supreme Court maintained Texas’s age-check requirement after Justice Clarence Thomas stated that the law’s impact on free speech is “incidental.”

The costs of compliance are also high. Pornhub could face fines of $13 million a day, one judge said, as reported by the Post. The burden of moderation falls heavily on smaller sites, including community message boards, according to their statements, although some platforms have chosen to shut down access completely.

The platforms must deal with legal penalties while defending themselves in court, and users are increasingly using VPNs to bypass restrictions. As Scott-Railton said to the Post, the result so far is “a textbook illustration of the law of unintended consequences.”