According to the latest survey report released by the charity Internet Matters, the UK’s Cybersecurity Law has limited effectiveness in preventing minors from accessing social media and adult content. The survey, which covered a total of 1,270 children aged 9 to 16 and their parents, showed that about 32% of the children surveyed admitted to bypassing the age verification mechanism.
The survey found that entering a false date of birth is still the most common bypass method. In addition, minors may also use an adult's device or login credentials, enable a VPN, and borrow other people's ID documents to circumvent restrictions. Notably, about one in six parents have proactively helped their children bypass these restrictions, primarily because they trust their children and understand the online services their children are trying to access.
When it comes to age verification technology, the reliability of facial scanning systems has been questioned. A British parent discovered that after his 12-year-old child had a fake mustache painted on his face, age estimation software actually determined that he was 15 years old. Previous research has shown that while facial scanners are more accurate at identifying users over the age of 18, their performance drops significantly when analyzing teenage faces. Some children have successfully used images of video game characters to pass facial verification.
VPN downloads have surged since the UK started imposing age restrictions on adult websites last year, and Australia banned minors from using social media. Social media platforms and other apps, such as Discord and YouTube, have also begun implementing age checks on some accounts after countries such as Australia tried to ban minors from accessing social media. Although the UK has yet to enact a similar blanket ban, minors already encounter age verification requirements when creating new accounts. Some services do not completely ban users under 16 years old, but restrict certain functions, such as live broadcasts and private messages.
Privacy and security issues have also raised concerns among parents. After Discord's associated identity database was leaked after requiring age verification, an app emerged that used 3D models to bypass the service's facial scans. One parent in the survey was concerned that age verification could be used by fraudulent websites to collect children's private information.
Meanwhile, regulators began taking action against VPNs, but with unintended consequences. U.S. lawmakers recently warned that VPN users could open themselves up to government surveillance because networks cannot tell whether they are operated by foreign countries. Utah recently became the first U.S. state to pass anti-VPN legislation, and Russia accidentally caused widespread outages in its banking system when it attempted to block VPNs.
This study shows that while digital restrictions have reduced children’s exposure to harmful content to some extent, they are still a long way from completely solving the problem. While some children and parents agree that protections should exist, opinions are divided on whether facial scans or government ID checks are the best solutions.