Security News > 2022 > February > UK.gov threatens to make adults give credit card details for access to Facebook or TikTok
Adults will have to hand over credit card or passport details before they can access social media sites, the British government threatened this morning.
Internet use age verification - first floated and then abandoned via the country's 2017 Digital Economy Act - will return in the UK's Online Safety Bill, digital minister Chris Philp MP has vowed, linking the technology, widely criticised by privacy activists, to protecting children from pornography websites.
Daniel Pryor, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute think tank, condemned this morning's announcement, saying in a statement: "The government seems determined to shaft civil liberties in its misguided crusade against pornography. Age verification is easily circumvented by any tech-savvy teen with a VPN.".
Age verification - if at first you don't succeed.... Like money, personal data sticks to the fingers of whoever handles it.
The UK government has promised that its favoured age verification providers will resist the temptation to exploit it, although many are unconvinced.
Prior efforts for mandatory age verification controls were originally supposed to be inserted into Digital Economy Act but were abandoned in 2019 after more than one delay.