Age verification on the internet returns to the center of the debate due to minors' access to social networks and adult content. Experts in digital rights and cybersecurity agree that the protection of children is a necessary objective, but warn that any poorly designed system can compromise privacy and open the door to excessive user control.
The key is in protecting minors and adults
Maite Arcos, director of the Foundation for Business, Security and Digital Society and collaborator of the Observatory of Digital Rights, maintained that an age verification system is not well designed if it collects biometric data from minors. In her opinion, the challenge is not limited to preventing access to certain services, but to doing so without invading the private sphere of those who try to use them.
"If it guarantees privacy, it is a good tool for the objective it pursues" - Maite Arcos, Business, Security and Digital Society Foundation
Arcos recalled that the European Digital Services Regulation already obliges platforms to implement technological measures to prevent adult content, such as pornography, gambling or others, from being accessible to minors. In that framework, he defended that Spain has solid tools to advance in that area.
Spain has a super-advanced and robust electronic ID, he pointed out, while stressing that technology already exists capable of verifying if a person has the required age without revealing their full age. The problem, he insisted, lies in ensuring the privacy of both minors and adults who want to legally access those services.
Risk of loss of anonymity and misuse of data
Josep Albors, head of research and awareness in Spain for the cybersecurity company ESET, warned that any verification system involves collecting user data and entails a loss of anonymity, to a greater or lesser extent. He also warned of the risk that the entity responsible for safeguarding that private information could suffer attacks or make inappropriate use of it.
Albors also focused on the real effectiveness of these measures. He assured that the mechanisms implemented in some countries have not prevented people affected by age verification from accessing restricted platforms or services. Among the ways to circumvent these controls are systems that encrypt traffic, borrowed accounts, false credentials, or even artificial intelligence tools.
The fear of excessive surveillance
The expert raised the question of whether child protection could end up being used as a justification for deploying monitoring and surveillance systems over social media users and the internet in general. Along those lines, he argued that the response to illegal content must rely on the judicial system and on a greater use of already available tools, such as parental control applications installable on devices.
From their point of view, more invasive additional measures would not be necessary if the already existing legal and technological resources are effectively applied.
"The opposite can lead to authoritarian control and censorship of what is consumed on social networks and the internet, regardless of the governing party; freedom of information and freedom of expression have already been delimited by the Constitutional Court, and minors also have rights" - Josep Albors, ESET
Albors pointed out that tools linked to administrations, such as Cl@ve and My Citizen Folder, can be less invasive because they are limited to confirming the user's age. Even so, he remarked that they are not infallible to prevent fraud, since devices of other people can be used.
Coincidence in a point of depth
The consulted experts agree that the protection of personal data and the privacy of minors must be a basic condition in any age verification system. They also share that a bad design or a deficient implementation can cause privacy problems, loss of personal data, indiscriminate control, or excessive surveillance.
While political proposals and technological solutions remain open, the debate moves among several fronts at once. Digital education, parental control, and the application of legality appear today as part of the immediate context in a discussion that not only affects access to certain content, but also the limits of privacy on the internet.