As British policymakers develop updated policies to regulate internet pornography, one approach could require users to send adult selfies to view adult content. Arbiter of age? Of course it’s AI.
If only 1984 author George Orwell had been here to write a sequel titled 2024.
The Online Safety Act 2023, which received Royal Assent on 26 October, aims to make the internet safer for UK users, especially children, by mandating service providers to implement effective age verification. The last of the six proposed methods involves asking users to take a selfie and send it to the government so that AI can verify that the user is an adult.
The proposal did not specify which AI tools or techniques would be used to assess the age of depicted Internet users, only emphasizing their “reliability” and that “a variety of age assurance methods have been appropriately tested,” including artificial intelligence.
The method must also be derived from a reliable source, Ofcom said.
More familiar methods outlined in the draft document include credit card verification, photo ID matching, digital identity wallets and mobile network operator verification. Each method should be considered “highly effective” in verifying a user’s age while complying with strict data protection laws. .
Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, is tasked with preventing children from accessing pornographic content and ensuring adults have unhindered access to legal content. Data cited by Ofcom shows that the majority of the UK population begins consuming porn at age 13, with 27% starting at age 11 (27%) and 10% at age 9.
Given these statistics, there are concerns in the UK about the ineffective mechanisms used to verify users’ ages. Self-declaration (clicking on the button marked “I am over 18”), specific online payment methods and general contractual restrictions are not considered sufficient for compliance.
However, even the government is not sure whether the use of AI will help solve the problem.
“At present, we do not have sufficient evidence on the effectiveness and potential risks of different age assurance methods to recommend specific metrics to assess whether a particular age assurance method or process should be considered highly effective,” Ofcom said. This was stated in the consultation draft. .
To address this, Ofcom said it expects service providers to continually improve and update their methods to ensure accessibility and interoperability, maintain detailed records of their users’ age verification processes and ensure compliance with data protection laws.
The UK, which has insisted it will not regulate AI so as not to hinder technological progress, must now address the intersection of innovation and privacy. The notion of porn sites using selfies to verify age raises deep-seated fears of Big Brother-like surveillance and control, and Ofcom knows this.
Dame Melanie Dawes, chief executive of Ofcom, said: “Regardless of the approach, we take care to ensure that all services provide strong protections to prevent children being stumbled upon by pornography and to ensure that adults’ privacy rights and freedoms are met to access legal content. “I expect it to tilt,” he said. From the official press release.
Ofcom is expected to publish final guidance in early 2025.