The UK government recently proposed a landmark Online Security Act, which is the core goal of which is to build a safer network environment for minors, especially in preventing minors from being exposed to online pornography. The introduction of this bill reflects the urgent need to protect the physical and mental health of minors in the digital age, and has also triggered extensive discussions on the balance between technology application and personal privacy protection.
The most controversial clause in the bill requires online platforms to use artificial intelligence technology for age verification. Specific measures include facial age estimation technology, which determines the age by analyzing the user's facial features; a photo identity matching system that compares the photos uploaded by the user with the ID card; a credit verification mechanism that verifies the age information through the user's credit history; and opens the Banking technology, confirms their identity information through users' financial data. The comprehensive application of these technologies aims to build a multi-level age verification system.
However, this mandatory age verification mechanism has also caused many concerns. Observation agencies and free market think tanks point out that the large-scale collection and use of individual sensitive information can lead to serious privacy risks. In particular, facial recognition and biometric data storage may become the targets of hackers. Once a data breach occurs, it will cause irreparable damage to user privacy. In addition, these technologies may be abused for other purposes such as user behavior tracking and commercial marketing, further infringing on personal privacy rights.
Under the newly passed Online Security Act, all websites and applications that display or publish pornographic content must take effective measures to ensure that minors cannot access the content. This not only includes implementing an age verification system, but also requires the platform to establish a content filtering mechanism to monitor and review content uploaded by users in real time. This regulation will significantly increase the operating costs of the platform and also put higher requirements on technology implementation.
The introduction of this bill reflects the British government's determination to protect the rights and interests of minors in the digital age, but also highlights the complex relationship between technological progress and privacy protection. How to maintain the privacy and digital freedom of adults while ensuring the security of network of minors will become an important issue that needs to be continuously paid attention to and balanced in future policy formulation and technological development.