Unfortunately for me and my countrymen, the Senate in Brazil has passed a new law regarding the need to add age verification to all online services and even O.S. and it takes effect on the 17th of march.
I won’t add any age verification methods to this website.
The reason being the law’s own requirements:
“[…]tomar medidas proporcionais, auditáveis e tecnicamente seguras para aferir a idade ou a faixa etária dos usuários, observados os princípios previstos no art. 6º da Lei nº 13.709, de 14 de agosto de 2018 (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais);”
This roughly translates to
“[…]take proportional, auditable, and technically secure measures to verify the age or age group of users, in compliance with the principles set forth in Article 6 of Law No. 13,709, of August 14, 2018 (General Data Protection Law);”
which is impossible, according to an open letter signed by more than 400 scientists and researchers.
Therefore, since there’s no auditable or secure method to verify ages, in implementing none, I’m following the law.
Also,
“[…]mecanismo de supervisão parental: conjunto de configurações, de ferramentas e de salvaguardas tecnológicas integradas a produtos ou serviços de tecnologia da informação direcionados a crianças e a adolescentes ou de acesso provável por eles“
Translating roughly:
“parental supervision mechanism: a set of settings, tools, and technological safeguards integrated into information technology products or services targeted at children and adolescents or likely to be accessed by them“
As a website not directed or targeted at kids or teenagers(see registration form requiring users to be 18 or older to make an account and terms of use), no parental tools are required according to the law.
Finally, this law contradicts LGPD (Lei nº 13.709/2018), Brazilian Law for Data Protection. The risk of sensitive data leak is enormous, as seen in several recent cases of such recently happening(specially “persona”) and, as specified before, age verification with current technology would not work. So I’d hope it will be repealed soon.
Opinion
The issue of online age verification, and other proposals “to protect kids” is something I’ve adressed before. It’s ineffective, risky, breaks privacy and ignores the actual solution: parents should be watching their kids, not companies or any 3rd party.
Kids and teenagers have, several times, bypassed all kinds of age verification methods by using VPN to change location, using fake IDs, asking an older friend/parent who doesn’t care/understand to verify, using video games with realistic characters to take “facial photos”, using AI to generate an ID and photos, etc. No age verification method will work.
The only way to keep those underage safe is by, as a parent, watching over them and teaching them the risks of the online world. EVERYTHING else will change nothing. Cybersecurity and IT experts from dozens of countries agree with this position.
Like my content? Support me with a tip!
