Publications
USA – why Bills targeting obscene content will survive constitutional challenges
While one federal judge decided that the age assurance requirements of the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (CA AADC) may be unconstitutional, the majority of more senior judges, sitting at the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, reached the opposite...
AVPA responds to UK Home Office consultation on digital age verification
The AVPA has submitted its response to the UK Home Office consultation on the use of digital methods of age assurance for the purposes of the sale of alcohol. The UK leads the world in digital age assurance technology. A change to the law to permit certified forms of...
Privacy; a foundational concept for age verification
Perhaps the most frequent concern raised about age verification is a risk to privacy. But the essence of age assurance is the ability to prove your age online WITHOUT disclosing your identity. Our industry would not exist were there not the absolute need to preserve...
Response to the Free Speech Coalition submission to Ofcom
We were pleased to see the response from the Free Speech Coalition to Ofcom's consultation on Part 5 of the Online Safety Act as it gives us the opportunity to clarify some potential misunderstandings and provide some reassurance, particularly to the many smaller...
AVPA responds to Ofcom consultation on Pornographic websites
The AVPA has responded to the consultation by Ofcom on how it intends to regulate pornographic websites under Part 5 of the Online Safety Act. We were broadly supportive of their approach, but there is one major ommission - the definition of "highly effective age...
Virtual Private Networks
We often hear the argument that age verification is pointless because "Kids will just use VPNs". That's not a valid argument, given how the relevant laws are drafted, and indeed, may lead adult sites into a false sense of security if they think the use of a VPN...
AVPA gives evidence to Utah Senate Business and Labor Committee
On Wednesday 14th February, we were invited to addres the Utah Senate Business and Labor Committee which is considering a revision to the State's existing laws designed to protect minors from the harms presented by the use of social media. It was the longest hearing...
AVPA responses to Ireland’s Coimisiún na Meán
We responded to a consultation on the new Online Safety Code proposed by the Coimisiún na Meán, Ireland new online regulator. We shared our views that: The Coimisiún should be careful it does not imply that smaller sites are exempt from taking action to protect...
Panel discusson at the Internext Expo / AVN convention
We joined a panel discussing age verification at the Internext-Expo conference, taking place in parallel with the AVN show in Las Vegas. Also speaking were Corey D. Silverstein and Larry Walters, well known lawyers specialising in this field, and Mark Bauman of...
Alternatives to AV – Filtering Software
Since the case of Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union, 542 U.S. 656 (2004) was decided by the US Supreme Court, with a 6-3 majority agreeing that the Child Online Protection Act (1998) did not pass the strict scrutiny test used to judge obscenity cases,...
Alternatives to AV – App stores age restrictions
There has been a lively debate about the potential to use app stores to impose age restrictions. For example, a new data protection law in India requires users to be 18+ to give consent for their personal data to be shared, so there is a ubiquitous need for online...