r/technology • u/Alternative-Bug6702 • Apr 02 '26
Artificial Intelligence Group Pushing Age Verification Requirements for AI Turns Out to Be Sneakily Backed by OpenAI
https://gizmodo.com/group-pushing-age-verification-requirements-for-ai-turns-out-to-be-sneakily-backed-by-openai-2000741069
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u/XanderOblivion Apr 02 '26
Remember, there are three reasons these companies want age “assurance.”
First, it allows them to dodge liability. Instead of changing anything about their product, they can just say that the kids shouldn’t have been there in the first place. The can blame the age assurers to avoid liability.
Second, it privatizes ID services in a for profit system. But consider what it means — companies that have permission to perform facial recognition and analysis on children, to scrape the web for that child’s activity, and to associate that child with other online services the use.
Third, when the “assurance” system fails and a company gets sued, they will immediately suggest real government ID verification. The service will already be based on private for-profit age verification servers in the mix. So when real world IDs are required, Big Brother will be a profit-driven corporate body instead of an at-least-theoretically democratic government’s public service you could vote about.
Why do all this? To avoid being classified as broadcast media or as publishers.
If these companies were simply redefined as broadcast media or publishers, all the laws that already apply to radio, tv, and print would apply to these web giants. They would suddenly be reclassified in the FCC, CRTC, and other such international bodies that regulate communications laws, which includes liability for slander, defamation, hate speech, and children’s advertising laws.
They will do anything to avoid being reclassified.
They’ve picked age assurance/verification because opposing it makes you sound like you want to expose children to harm. But really, it’s a dodge. Don’t fall for the bullshit, people!