Jarvie Chelsea, Renaud Karen
Department of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XQ, UK.
Children (Basel). 2024 Aug 30;11(9):1068. doi: 10.3390/children11091068.
There are widespread concerns about the online harms to children operating online. As such, governments have enacted laws to require online service providers to deploy age verification to prevent such harms. We investigate the following three research questions regarding this topic: (1) To what extent have different governments legislated age verification controls? (2) Do governments embrace a responsibilization strategy when it comes to online age verification? and (3) How does the UK public feel about online age verification legislation? We find that governments are applying a responsibilization strategy, which has led to widespread deployment of privacy-invasive or ineffective age verification. The former violates the privacy of underage users, with the latter undermining the overarching aims of the legislation. We have also found general disengagement and a lack of trust in the government amongst the public with regards to new online age verification laws within the UK. To conclude, despite governments globally looking to put more robust online age verification mechanisms in place, there remains a general lack of privacy preservation and affordable technological solutions. Moreover, the overarching aims of the online safety and age verification legislative changes may not be satisfied due to the general public stakeholder group's disengagement and lack of trust in their government.
人们普遍担忧儿童上网所面临的网络危害。因此，各国政府已颁布法律，要求在线服务提供商实施年龄验证，以防止此类危害。关于这一主题，我们研究以下三个研究问题：（1）不同国家的政府在多大程度上制定了年龄验证控制措施？（2）在网络年龄验证方面，政府是否采用了责任化策略？以及（3）英国公众对网络年龄验证立法有何看法？我们发现，政府正在采用责任化策略，这导致了侵犯隐私或无效的年龄验证措施被广泛采用。前者侵犯了未成年用户的隐私，后者则破坏了立法的总体目标。我们还发现，英国公众对政府新出台的网络年龄验证法律普遍不参与且缺乏信任。总之，尽管全球各国政府都希望建立更强大的网络年龄验证机制，但仍然普遍缺乏隐私保护和经济实惠的技术解决方案。此外，由于公众利益相关者群体对政府的不参与和缺乏信任，网络安全和年龄验证立法变革的总体目标可能无法实现。
