Legislators in France, the United Kingdom, and the European Union are moving forward with plans to restrict minors from accessing major social media platforms. These measures follow a similar law enacted in Australia in 2024. The goal is to protect children from online harms. Early data from Australia suggests these age gates are not working as intended. Instead of keeping kids offline, the restrictions are pushing them toward darker corners of the internet.
Age Verification Fails to Stop Teens
A study published earlier this year found that four out of five teenagers under the age of 16 found ways to access barred platforms. Young users have developed various tactics to bypass these digital barriers. Common methods include using a sibling’s identification documents or creating fake facial features to trick automated systems. The ease of circumvention highlights a fundamental flaw in relying on age gates as a primary safety tool.
Proponents of the bans argue that enforcement needs to be stricter. They believe that closing these loopholes will effectively keep children off the platforms. However, experts argue that the act of circumvention is a signal of the policy’s limitations. It shows that young people are actively seeking connection and information that the bans restrict. Suppressing this access does not address the underlying reasons why teens use these services.
Risks of Stricter Enforcement
Increasing the difficulty of bypassing age verification creates new dangers. To prove their age, users are often forced to submit sensitive personal information. Some platforms require government-issued IDs or use automated tracking to profile users. This data collection increases the risk of identity theft and data breaches. For example, a recent security incident at Discord exposed the government IDs of at least 70,000 users who were verifying their age through a third-party service.
Stricter enforcement also impacts privacy tools like virtual private networks. Some state laws in the United States, including those in Michigan and Utah, have attempted to restrict the use of VPNs to enforce age limits. These efforts have faced legal challenges. Requiring adults to prove their age to access a VPN defeats the purpose of the technology. It can endanger journalists and human rights defenders who rely on these tools for anonymity.
Unmonitored Platforms Pose Greater Threats
When teens cannot access mainstream platforms, they do not simply stop using the internet. They move to alternative spaces. Some turn to unconventional tools like Google Docs or podcast comment sections. Others migrate to platforms with fewer safety guardrails. Preliminary research from Australia indicates that screen time has not decreased. It has merely shifted to unmonitored environments.
These less-regulated spaces often attract vulnerable youth and those who prey on them. The lack of oversight makes these areas more dangerous than the platforms the bans were designed to restrict. Parents and children often want smarter policies that protect rights while allowing access. Many parents already help their children bypass age restrictions to maintain social connections. They believe the benefits of digital literacy and peer interaction outweigh the risks.
Experts suggest that policymakers should focus on the incentives that drive companies to engage in risky behavior. This includes limiting data collection and reducing addictive features. Expanding user-controlled tools, such as keyword-based content filtering, could also help families manage online experiences. These approaches address the root causes of online harm without forcing young users into unmonitored digital spaces.
Source: MIT Technology Review
