Social Networking & Age Verification: Many Hard Questions; No Easy Solutions (PDF; 327 KB)
Source: The Progress & Freedom Foundation
From press release:

Since most websites today contain some aspect of user interaction, lawmakers would have great difficulty in defining social networking sites when drafting legislation or mandates. An overly broad definition could have a chilling affect on free speech. Moreover, collection and verification of the personal information of minors raises serious concerns of privacy and data protection.
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Age verification requirements for social networking sites also present a multitude of logistical issues. Minors do not have access to documents that are widely accepted for verification of identity and age, such as a driver’s license. Documents minors do have access to, such as social security cards and birth certificates, could be easily falsified in the online environment. Using any sort of government issued identification for verification would require establishing a centralized database to coordination with websites, raising questions regarding who would control these databases. Other proposals suggest sites seek parental permission or contact a child’s school for verification of age. Again, such measures can be easily circumvented and could put undue burden and costs on schools. Thierer also warns against creating verification schemes that are too cumbersome for the user and the site owner. Popular networking sites may be pushed offshore, out of reach of US laws.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2007 at 9:11 am and is filed under Internet, Privacy, Social and cultural issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.