The battle against age verification laws is intensifying around the globe. Governments are increasingly concerned and acting to protect children from online harms. As of August 2023, twenty-three states in the country have passed these laws. Two additional states, Colorado and Oregon, are preparing to roll out their regulations by the end of September 2025. In July 2025, the UK took a bold step and passed the Online Safety Act. This law requires these online platforms to check user identities before providing them access. This legislative proposal brings to light the competing visions for online safety, in which the DSA would let each of these platforms implement their own verification systems.
Age verification legislation is becoming more common largely because of growing concerns about the safety of minors online. This move forward follows the rollout of past federal regulations such as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998. COPPA was intended to limit online age checks to protect young users, but best practices for implementing age checks have developed to a now. A host of existing laws require users to submit an official identification to third-party verification databases. This requirement would pose serious threats to privacy and data security.
The Landscape of U.S. Age Verification Laws
Here in the United States, age verification laws are primarily intended to protect minors from harmful content. No state is as important in this moment of change as Texas. Come June 2025, this time in a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court doubled down on its age verification law. This decision bubbled up amid a staggering escalation of legislative attacks against the LGBTQ community in the state. These restrictions ranged from acts specifically aimed at public drag performances to outright prohibitions on gender-affirming care for minors.
This deeply restrictive legal framework should alarm everyone. It endangers freedom of expression and undermines access to information. A recent law criminalizing drag shows was struck down as unconstitutional for its First Amendment violations. This ruling shines a light on the increasing struggle of legislative policy vs. civil liberties.
“No method of age verification is both privacy-protective and entirely accurate.” – Electronic Frontier Foundation
Critics have condemned age verification laws for their potential to violate user privacy. Yet these laws chill access to valuable, non-pornographic and constitutionally protected information — particularly on LGBTQ-related topics. Activists are sounding the alarm that these regulations could cause critical resources to be classified as “sexual material harmful to minors.” This would severely limit access to important information.
The United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act
The United Kingdom has followed suit by passing its own version of age verification. This new law, called the Online Safety Act, went into effect July 2025. This legislation requires online platforms to verify the identities of their users. It fails to provide any guidance on how they should do this verification process. Rather than doing that, it simply gives each website the freedom to set their own verification standards.
Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, is responsible for enforcing this act. That extreme flexibility provided to platforms begs the question of lack of consistency and effectiveness to protect minors. As much as this flexibility offers opportunities for creative innovation and adaptation, it creates difficulties for regulation and enforcement.
The move towards introducing the Online Safety Act demonstrates the continued worries around online safety and child protection. As platforms develop various mechanisms for identity verification, there is a growing apprehension about how these systems will safeguard sensitive user data.
“Since age verification software requires users to hand over extremely sensitive information, it opens the door to the risk of data breaches.” – Pornhub
As platforms navigate these new regulations, they must balance the need for safety with the imperative to protect user privacy.
The Role of Technology in Age Verification
As the industry faces unprecedented regulatory scrutiny, we’re seeing platforms—YouTube in particular—step up. Now, they’ve begun using technology to try to figure out users’ ages based on their activity on the app. Their approach is narrower, focusing on providing additional protections for minors. Simultaneously, it aims to address various privacy-related issues associated with conventional age verification processes.
This technological fix isn’t without its critics. Users have raised concern that although such systems improve user safety, they can still introduce errors and drive actionable behavior in the wrong direction. How effective these mechanisms actually are is still an open question being debated by policymakers, tech companies, and advocates.
The changing nationwide context to age verification laws presents serious concerns under the law for privacy, security, and access to information. And on the bright side, lawmakers are clearly trying to do something about it. At the same time, advocates and stakeholders need to remain vigilant so that protections for minors do not undermine adult access.
