Global push for online age checks draws privacy and speech concerns

Governments and tech firms worldwide are increasingly requiring online users to prove their ages before accessing content, a trend that supporters say protects children but that critics warn could undermine privacy, free speech and the open internet. The measures are proliferating across the United States and Europe and will take a dramatic form in Australia, where a federal ban on social media for children under 16 is due to take effect on December 10.

More than 20 U.S. states have enacted age verification rules of varying reach, and the Supreme Court has recently allowed a Mississippi social media age-check law to stand and, in June, upheld a Texas law aimed at blocking minors from viewing explicit material online. Elsewhere, the United Kingdom now requires age checks for sites with explicit content, France and other European countries are testing government verification apps, and several major platforms including Reddit, X, Telegram and Bluesky have pledged or begun implementing checks.

Proponents frame the rules as child-safety measures. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said platforms have a responsibility to keep kids safe, and Australia’s Age Assurance Technology...