Publications
Kids Online Safety Act – Age Verification
A number of human rights and LGBTQ+ organizations wrote to members of the US Congress last week opposing a kids’ online safety bill (KOSA) they argue would not actually help make the Internet a better place for children and teens. We wanted to respond to their...
It’s high time to update the UK’s outdated licensing laws.
We’ve spent the past year working with representatives of the police, trading standards officers, retailers, the Institute of Licensing and other experts in the field to review the practical implementation of the UK’s licensing laws, under the auspices of HM...
AVPA on BBC Radio 4 World at One
We spoke to BBC Radio 4 World at One about the latest changes to the Online Safety Bill. We explained how age verification and age estimation can be used to apply age checks in proportion to the level of risk. And we warned how disappointed parents will be if they...
Answering Fraser Nelson’s questions
Fraser Nelson, Editor of The Spectator, has quite reasonably raised a list of questions he still has about the impact on free speech of the Online Safety Bill in this article: “The Online Safety Bill is still a censor’s charter“. As many of these refer to age...
The French data protection regulator’s views on age verification
The French data protection authority (DPA) is the Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL). This translates literally as the “National Commission for Computing and Liberties” and this perhaps provides some insight into their natural instincts...
Press Release: Age Verification providers warn ICO to learn lessons from their French and German counterparts when trying to regulate the porn industry
PRESS RELEASE Age Verification providers warn ICO to learn lessons from their French and German counterparts when trying to regulate the porn industry London, 2 September – The trade body representing leading suppliers of technology to anonymously verify the age of...
How do you regulate a foreign porn site?
How do you regulate a foreign porn site? It may be the world-wide web, but governments are still generally national not international (the EU being the exception which proves that rule), so how can any one state hope to regulate the global Internet? Well, it is not...
How good are remote checks of identity documents?
There has been some controversy in Germany after a recent series of tweets demonstrated that it may be possible to tamper with real government-issed ID documents, and fool online identity checks First of all, many AV providers do not rely solely this technology...
EDPB/EDPS Joint Opinion on AV (Re CSAM prevention) Further thoughts…
We have been reflecting further on the recent Joint Opinion by the European Data Protection Board and their Supervisor. It is important to put these comments in their proper context. This is an opinion on a very specific issue (i.e. the European Commission’s proposals...
AVPA response to the EDPB-EDPS Joint Opinion on rules to prevent child sexual abuse
The European Data Protection Board, a collective body of EU, EFTA and EEA data protection authorities, and the European Data Protection Supervisor have published a jointy opinion on the latest proposed rules to prevent child sexual abuse being considered by the...