Protecting Kids Online vs. Your Privacy: Can We Have Both

Sometime in 2023 it was all about the Online Safety Bill, 2024 saw the time of the Texas Age Verification Law. In both instances, the good that both laws sought to do were placed on a scale and weighed against the harm they could do, especially with respect to
our privacy and data online.

Here, I want to talk about two laws that sound great on paper but come with a hidden price tag for privacy. In Texas, the proposed Age Verification Law requires websites with adult content to verify age of users by using methods like checking for government IDs or facial scans. On the other hand, the UK’s Online Safety Act forces platforms to remove illegal content (like child abuse material) and verify users’ ages on adult sites. Both laws aim to protect children and regulate the type of content they may have access to online. This is a goal that everyone supports, myself included. But here’s the catch; these laws could end up undermining the privacy of everyone in the process, even Nigerians thousands of miles away.

On the surface and on first look, it is actually difficult to argue with the intent of both laws. Children shouldn’t have to stumble onto harmful content while surfing online or making use of the internet. We also all agree that harmful and illegal material should be
removed from every website that children may access so that they are protected against the harms brought about by viewing such contents, that is why these laws require proof that a person who accesses an adult website or platform, or a website/platform that
hosts adult content, should verify their age and prove that they are legally allowed to visit such websites and/or platforms.

But this is just surface level. This is the pedestrian way of looking at it, so let’s dig a little deeper. In Texas, the Age Verification Law requiring IDs or biometric data to access legal adult content creates a goldmine for hackers. Imagine your driver’s license or face
scan leaking in a breach; how safe would you as a user of the internet feel? There are a lot of users of the internet who have as much as possible tried to remain anonymous, going as far as to shield their IP address, disable trackers on their internet browsers and
refusing cookie access on their browsers, all for the sake of protecting their identities online. Would it not be right argument that such a law requiring such sensitive data as a means of verification renders all such effort useless? Would anonymity of users of the
internet not be sacrificed on the alter of online safety of children?

And what about adults who would be forced to avoid sexual and/ or reproductive health resources or educational content because they don’t want to hand over personal data? Privacy isn’t and shouldn’t just be about secrecy, it should also be about autonomy.

The UK’s law takes things even further. In order to catch illegal content online, platforms and websites may have to scan encrypted messages. This law requires something that sets a very dangerous precedent, by requiring apps like WhatsApp or Signal to scan messages and contents shared through them, and therein lies the problem; breaking end-to-end encryption, which keeps your chats private, means everyone’s communications become vulnerable to surveillance, not just those of criminals, or persons illegally distributing child sexual materials (or other adult contents). Plus, forcing age checks on adult sites creates a system that normalizes collecting sensitive data, opening the door to identity theft or blackmail. It’s like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

This isn’t just hypothetical. The U.S. case Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton challenges the Texas Age Verification Law, arguing that it violates adults’ constitutional rights by making them surrender personal info to access lawful speech. A host of critics have warned that these laws set dangerous precedents. Through the case, they ask questions that should be answered before the more invasive provisions of these laws are enforced. One of the most important questions that privacy and data protection enthusiasts and advocates are asking is; once governments or companies get access to your data, where does it stop?

So, what’s the solution? Protecting children online is non-negotiable, but so is safeguarding privacy. Children have to be protected against the harms that exist online and from themselves because they do not know better. However, Instead of invasive age checks or breaking encryption, is it not a better use of state resources to invest in privacy-preserving tech that verifies age without storing your ID? Or focus on educating parents and improving tools they already use? The answer isn’t “either/or”; it is about smarter regulation that does not sacrifice one public good for another.