Spain is developing an identification program to prevent minors from accessing porn and gambling websites.
Leonard Wilhelmus,
Elsa Osipova
The Spanish government wants to prevent minors from accessing porn sites.
The country is currently developing an identification program to verify the age of people logging on to porn and gambling websites, the head of the data protection agency said.
A similar identification system was recently introduced in, for example, Britain and some US states.
Spanish authorities are concerned about the impact of sites containing porn and violence on children and young people. With the development of artificial intelligence, the situation becomes more and more complicated.
In September, the police started an investigation, in which a nude image generated by artificial intelligence was distributed on social media. The picture showed a girl who clearly looked underage and the picture was shared among Spanish youth.
According to the Save the Children organization, half of Spanish teenagers have watched pornographic content under the age of 13.
– We can greatly influence people’s development, health and life simply by checking the age of users of adult entertainment websites, Director of the Spanish Data Protection Agency Mar Spain said.
Criticism of data protection
Strong age recognition has been criticized for data protection issues.
One problem is related to the storage of personal data required for identification. The threat is that the information can end up with third parties who can use it for blackmail.
For example, in Britain, data protection organizations have stated, that the identification requirement is a broad risk to citizens’ privacy. Australia, on the other hand, postponed the introduction of identification programs on porn sites earlier this year due to data security reasons.
National restrictions are also possible circumvent using a VPN connection. A VPN connection enables you to change your location to another country, where identification is not required.
However, the Spanish Data Protection Agency assures that identification is implemented in such a way that personal data is not passed on to third parties. For example, an age verification application or an identity card can be used for identification.
The identification tool is scheduled to be introduced in mid-2024.
Source: Reuters