Online Age Verification: Key Dilemmas Mapped

Current digital practice lacks a sound and widely deployable age verification system. This makes it difficult for providers of services - such as social media, online games or age-appropriate content - to effectively verify that users comply with legal age limits. At the same time, society's need to protect minors online is more urgent than ever.

Discussions about age verification often run alongside each other. The argument map makes explicit that this is not a plea for or against age verification - after all, the political choice to require age verification in certain cases has already been made (in part). So with a broad group of experts, policy makers, stakeholders and young people, we mapped out the considerations involved in a public interpretation of this task.

The argument map shows that a public age verification provision can offer several benefits:

• A safer and more convenient Internet for minors.
• Equal access for all citizens, regardless of commercial interests.
• A recognizable, secure and reliable environment for users.
• With a public service, (smaller) companies can more easily comply with laws and regulations.

At the same time, the chart also names concerns:

• Age verification is not a foolproof system.
• Concerns about sharing personal data with the government.
• Fear of bureaucratic, hard-to-access systems - especially for young people and educators.
• Question whether the government should provide age verification - there are already privacy-friendly age verification services.

Young people largely give the same arguments as experts. They do indicate that adults often do not fully understand their online behavior and thus should be cautious about taking action on it.

The argument map was prepared by AMS-IX, the City of Amsterdam, Offlimits and ECP | Platform for the Information Society. With this map, the authors hope to contribute to a transparent and constructive debate about a public facility that has the potential to have a major impact on the digital safety of young people as well as the digital rights of citizens.