FIPR has responded to the Government’s consultation on Growing up in the online world to express deep concern with the proposals to implement strong Age Verification by default for online services. These will not only affect children, but all adults in the UK. We fully support the ambition to reduce online harm to young people and acknowledge the many deep harms that have emerged in part from the business models of the major online platforms. However, many of the proposed solutions for Age Verification will exacerbate the very harms they are seeking to prevent, as children seek out insecure circumvention methods that will lead them to more harmful content or expose them to the risk of blackmail and abuse. These approaches will also cause serious issues of digital exclusion for many adults in the UK. Any real solution cannot be imposed ‘over the heads’ of the children who it will most affect and those who care for them. While it is tempting to rely on ‘magic’ technological fixes for online harm, these will not work, will concentrate even more power in the hands of large tech platforms, and will risk letting them off the hook for the wider social harms to which they contribute.
Our full response to the consultation can be read here.