US State Age Verification Efforts Threaten Online Speech and Privacy – The Supreme Court Seems Ready to Allow Them

Sarah Forland, policy analyst at OTI, provides an overview of the U.S. age verification landscape in her piece for Tech Policy Press.

As lawmakers continue to push the boundaries for online restrictions in the name of youth safety, the courts will be forced to further define the limits of age verification. It’s imperative for lawmakers to understand that, at their core, age verification mandates create unnecessary burdens to access speech for everyone—regardless of age—and endanger user anonymity and privacy in a way that threatens to completely change the web’s legacy of free and open use. Even in limited cases where age verification is absolutely required, more work is needed to ensure user safety and make privacy-preserving age verification technically feasible. However, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court’s decision to allow Mississippi’s social media age verification law to go into effect while legal proceedings continue may very well illustrate in real time the danger these mandates pose to users and their constitutional rights.