A wave of new laws across the United States aimed at protecting minors online is significantly changing how people access digital platforms. While the regulations are designed to block children from harmful online content, critics argue that the growing use of mandatory age-verification systems is also subjecting millions of adult users to identity checks and digital surveillance.
Several U.S. states have introduced or are currently considering legislation that requires platforms — including social media networks, adult content websites, gaming platforms, and financial services — to verify the age of users before allowing access. As a result, companies are being forced to screen everyone who attempts to use these services, not just minors.
Supporters say the rules are essential for protecting young users from harmful material.
However, privacy advocates warn that these requirements could reshape the internet by linking online activity with sensitive personal data.
Across the country, states are implementing different versions of age-verification laws, creating a complex regulatory landscape for companies operating online.
“There’s a big spectrum,” said Joe Kaufman, global head of privacy at Jumio, one of the largest digital identity-verification and authentication platforms.
He explained that companies must navigate multiple rules that vary widely depending on the state.
“The regulations are moving in many different directions at once,” he said.
This fragmented legal framework has forced platforms to develop systems capable of complying with different technical standards, privacy requirements, and enforcement mechanisms.
Technology companies are beginning to introduce age verification systems to comply with new legal requirements.
Social media platform Discord announced in February that it plans to implement mandatory age verification worldwide. The company said the system would rely on privacy-focused technology where facial analysis takes place on a user’s own device rather than on company servers, and any submitted data would be deleted immediately after verification.
However, the plan triggered concerns among users who were uncomfortable with the idea of uploading selfies or government identification to access certain features. Following the backlash, Discord postponed the rollout until later this year.
“Let me be upfront: we knew this rollout was going to be controversial. Any time you introduce something that touches identity and verification, people are going to have strong feelings,” Discord chief technology officer and co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy wrote in a Feb. 24 blog post.
Many online platforms now rely on specialized identity-verification vendors to confirm users’ ages. These companies often use artificial intelligence technologies such as facial recognition and age estimation to analyze selfies or short video clips.
Within seconds, these systems can estimate whether a person is old enough to access specific content.
Websites offering adult content, gambling, or financial services typically require stricter identity verification. In these cases, users must scan a government-issued identification document and match it with a live facial image.
By contrast, social media platforms and other services often employ lighter verification methods that estimate age without permanently storing detailed identity information.
Companies providing age verification tools say their biggest challenge is maintaining a balance between protecting minors and avoiding excessive friction for adult users.
“We’re in the business of ensuring that you are absolutely keeping minors safe and out and able to let adults in with as little friction as possible,” said Rivka Gerwitz Little, chief growth officer at identity-verification platform Socure.
She noted that if platforms collect too much personal information, users may resist using those services altogether.
Excessive data collection, she added, creates friction that users resist.
“Having another way to be forced to provide that information is intrusive to people,” said Heidi Howard Tandy, a partner at Berger Singerman who specializes in intellectual property and internet law.
Some users may attempt to bypass verification systems by using alternative methods such as prepaid payment cards or unofficial distribution channels.
“It’s going to cause a piracy situation,” she added.
In many cases, websites themselves do not directly process identity verification. Instead, specialized vendors handle the data and send platforms a simple confirmation indicating whether the user passed the age check.
Gerwitz Little said Socure does not sell verification data. She also explained that in some situations, particularly where age estimation is used instead of ID verification, companies may retain little or no personal information.
However, in cases involving government ID verification — such as online gaming and fraud prevention — certain records may be retained.
She said Socure can keep some adult verification data for up to three years while following applicable privacy and purging rules.
Civil liberties organizations warn that storing large amounts of identity data within a small group of verification vendors could create major security risks.
Large databases containing personal details such as names, addresses, birth dates, and facial images may become attractive targets for cybercriminals or government surveillance.
Earlier this year, Discord disclosed a data breach involving a third-party service that exposed identification images belonging to approximately 70,000 users. The incident highlighted the potential risks associated with storing sensitive identity information online.
Privacy advocates warn that the rapid expansion of age verification systems could fundamentally change how people interact with the internet.
Age verification risks tying users’ “most sensitive and immutable data” — names, faces, birthdays, home addresses — to their online activity, according to Molly Buckley, a legislative analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
“Age verification strikes at the foundation of the free and open internet,” she said.
Even if platforms rely on third-party vendors, companies may still face legal responsibility for how identity data flows through their systems.
“A company is going to have some of that information passing through their own servers,” Tandy said.
“And you can’t offload that kind of liability to a third party.”
Companies often mitigate risk through contracts and insurance agreements with vendors.
“What you can do is have really good insurance and require really good insurance from the entities that you’re contracting with,” she said.
Government regulators argue that these laws are necessary to protect minors from harmful online experiences.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said companies must follow strict data protection rules when collecting personal information.
According to the agency, businesses must ensure they collect only necessary data, protect it securely, and delete it when it is no longer required.
Virginia is among the states that have actively enforced age verification requirements. However, the law recently faced a legal setback.
A federal court temporarily blocked enforcement of the regulation after a trade group representing major social media companies filed a First Amendment challenge.
Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said after the ruling that his office “will use every tool available to us to ensure that Virginia’s children are protected from the proven harms of unlimited access to these addictive feeds. We look forward to being able to fully enforce the law to keep families safe.”
Privacy experts argue that governments should focus on broader data protection reforms instead of building new identity verification systems.
Buckley said lawmakers could improve online safety without undermining privacy or free speech rights.
She suggested the United States should adopt stronger federal privacy laws that give individuals more control over how their personal data is collected and used online.
Age verification is already becoming common in several countries.
In regions such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Brazil, regulations require platforms to use technologies like facial age estimation or government ID checks to confirm users’ ages.
Major technology companies are also exploring alternative approaches.
Snap, the company behind Snapchat, has suggested that age verification should occur at the device or app store level rather than on individual platforms.
“We believe there are better, more privacy-conscious solutions such as mandating age verification at the primary point of entry — the device, operating system, or app store level,” a Snap spokesperson told a news agency.
Industry experts believe that in the future, users may verify their age once and then reuse that credential across multiple platforms.
“The way the trend is moving is definitely toward some kind of persistent verification of a user’s age,” Kaufmann said.
Such systems could function similarly to existing digital account ecosystems.
Tandy compared this approach to platforms like Disney accounts, where a user’s age is confirmed once and recognized across multiple services.
The rapid expansion of age-verification laws across the United States highlights the growing effort by governments to protect minors from harmful online content. While supporters argue that such measures are necessary for child safety, critics warn that mandatory identity checks could reshape the digital landscape by linking personal identities with online activity.
As more states introduce regulations and companies adopt verification technologies, the debate between privacy rights and child protection is likely to intensify. Whether the future internet prioritizes anonymity or stronger identity verification may ultimately depend on how policymakers balance security, privacy, and free expression in the years ahead.