Publications
No, EFF: ZKPs are a ‘silver bullet’ in Age Assurance when privacy is critical
In their latest publication in a series tackling age assurance, "Zero-Knowledge Proofs Aren’t Age Verification Silver Bullets" the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) base their critique of a proven cryptographic technology entirely on the potential for it being...
Countries Considering Social Media Delays
Governments are increasingly exploring a “social media delay” to restrict or better regulate children’s access to online platforms. These proposals are driven by growing concerns around youth mental health and online safety risks. Many countries are considering...
Age Assurance at 16 White Paper
Ofcom is due to report to Parliament on the feasibility of age assurance to implement a minimum age of 16 for social media in the UK. We consulted our members and have provided this report on the state of the art of current age assurance technology when it comes to...
Evidence to Australian Senate confirms our case: The problem is not Age Assurance – it’s the lack of it
This week’s Senate committee hearing into the social media minimum age ban confirmed what AVPA documented in our Lessons Learned report published in April: that platforms are not using the wide range of age assurance options they could adopt. So, this news...
New Mexico Court Judgement: Positive or negative for Age Assurance?
On 6 August 2026, Judge Biedscheid of the First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe issued his findings of fact, conclusions of law and judgement in State of New Mexico v Meta Platforms, Inc. The case had been brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez,...
Why “Device-Only” age checks are a False Choice for lawmakers
A prominent adult platform network recently published an open letter to US lawmakers arguing that site-level age verification laws have failed. In its place, the letter proposes that lawmakers mandate Apple, Google and Microsoft to build device-level age checks into...
BMJ publishes research confirming age assurance is not being deployed in Australia
A study published in the BMJ on 24 June 2026 looked at what actually happened to Australian teenagers in the three months after the Social Media Minimum Age Act came into force in December 2025. The headline conclusion has been widely reported as proof that age...
AVPA Response to Prime Minister’s Announcement on Social Media
PRESS RELEASE AVPA Response to Prime Minister's Announcement on Social Media The Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) confirms that the age assurance requirements needed to support a minimum age of 16 for social media are technically achievable using...
Is the EU Age Verification App Ready for a Social Media Minimum Age?
The EU Age Verification App was initially designed with a specific purpose: to demonstrate to adult-only services - pornography platforms in particular - that there was a technically feasible, GDPR-compliant mechanism to implement an 18+ minimum age. And it has...
Australian Minister Annika Wells assesses the success of the social media policy
On 10th June, the BBC's Dharshini David interviewed Australian communications minister, Annika Wells on Radio 4's Today Programme. Listen in full below: The Minister argued that resistance from major technology companies was entirely predictable. If Australia's...
Rhetorically Conflating Age and Identity Checks Is Putting a Sign Above the Door You Want to Close
Opponents of age verification have long reached for a familiar argument: that checking someone's age before they access online content is really an identity check in disguise. The claim is that platforms will inevitably end up knowing who you are, that anonymity will...