Ready to Prove Your Age? And the AI Fog of War
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The Know… the latest tech news and commentary.
If you missed last week’s No-Hype news, we talk about why we don’t celebrate the removal of sexual predators from Instagram and Facebook. Don’t worry. It’s not what you think. Be sure to check out Shark-Infested Digital Waters.
The UK’s Online Safety Act went into effect on July 25th. The law requires age verification for sites and apps that permit adult content.
🎙️ Texas recently had a similar law upheld by the Supreme Court, but this is the first age verification law implemented at a national level. While it only targets sites with adult content, we’re likely to see age verification for all platforms in the near future as the minimum age for social media shifts from 13 to 16 globally. YouTube just announced AI age detection to “a small set of users in the US.” Welcome to the dawn of online age verification.
X updated its Age Assurance page in their Help Center to reflect the changes required by the UK’s Online Safety Act. It outlines a number of verification methods that need no “further user involvement.”
🎙️ This page gives us good insight into what future social media age verification might look like. From account creation date to email addresses, X can estimate age a number of ways before requiring face scans or uploading government IDs, something privacy advocates oppose.
Last week the White House released its long-awaited AI action plan. The plan emphasizes removing red tape and creating AI infrastructure to keep the United States at the forefront of AI innovation.
🎙️ As we’ve covered before, the government is framing this as an arms race and is charging into the unknown fog of
wartech. Though the Trump administration sought public comments, the plan is heavily influenced by the tech lobby. It faults slow adoption as the “bottleneck to harnessing AI’s full potential” and its “worker-first AI agenda” is little more than a roadmap for mass integration of AI across sectors.
This month Common Sense Media released a report on “why teens use AI companions.” They found 24% of teens have shared personal information like name, location, and secrets with chatbots. The research confirmed the organization’s earlier recommendation that no one under 18 should use them.
🎙️ Privacy is a guiding principle for tech adoption and use. Don’t share personal information with any AI chatbots. While we’ve covered the dangers of AI companions, on a positive note, the report says that 80% of teens “prioritize human friendships over AI companion interactions.” By their own proclivity and help from resources like Driver’s Training for Social Media, it’s not going to be easy to deceive the next generation.