Publications
Is App-Store based age assurance the silver bullet?
There has been growing debate over whether app stores should take on the responsibility of age verification. Some tech companies, including Meta and Snap, have suggested that app stores should enforce these age restrictions, preventing underage users from downloading...
The AVPA responds to Drew Harwell’s article in the Washington Post.
In a piece for the Washington Post “A booming industry of AI age scanners, aimed at children’s faces”, Drew Harwell opens by quoting an allegation that facial age estimation relies on ‘a style of surveillance that ranges “from ‘somewhat privacy violating’ to...
Introducing AgeAware – a new global age assurance ecosystem
The AVPA is a member of euCONSENT ASBL, a Belgium non-profit set up to take forward the work of the euCONSENT project which, with EU funding, made the first attempt to create interoperability for age verification and parental consent processes. euCONSENT has just...
AVPA responds to Ofcom Consultation
The AVPA has responded to Ofcom's consultation on "Protecting children from harms online". The Association has highlighted the risks arising from: Not defining clearly what level of accuracy is required of "Highly Effective Age Assurance" and Not requiring any attempt...
How California failed to act to protect children from porn
We recently had to withdraw our support from AB 3080 as a result of an Amendment accepted by the California Senate's Judiciary Committee. We had already given evidence in person as expert witnesses proposing the Bill to both the Assembly Privacy and Consumer...
US State Law comparisons for adult content 2024
In light of the numerous new laws passed in the USA recently, we've updated our comparison chart. As of June 2024, there have been 21 new laws, detailed below in alphabetical order, in three tables. 1. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana and Kansas 2....
Age Assurance – but what about the kids?
Confirming the age of children under the age of 18 is becoming an increasingly important requirement around the world in Australia, the UK, the EU and many US states, particularly for restricting younger children’s access to social media. Given children are...
Is the EU Digital Identity Wallet the solution for age assurance?
With the news that the Digital Identity Regulation entered into force on 20th May 2024, all Citizens and Residents can now look forward to being offered at least one EU Digital Identity Wallet by their Member State by 2026. Given how often age verification has been...
AVPA gives evidence to California state assembly committee hearing
We were privileged to give evidence to the California Assembly's Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee, when it considered Assembly Bill 3080, sponsored by Assemblymember Juan Alanis. The Bill will require age verification for adult websites. We began with a...
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...