Last month we were invited to speak at ‘Age Verification in Practice,’ a seminar hosted by the Adult Provider Network (APN) on workable solutions for the Adult Industry.
The talk couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time, with new laws being drawn up that will require users to prove their age before being able to see age restricted content online. Proposed legislative changes will force adults to prove their age with credit card details or other documents before they can access age restricted sites. However, when getting into the details there are some big issues with how the legislation might be implemented, with the currently proposed "how" being one that won't solve anyone's problems - be they legislators, content providers, or the underaged viewers everyone wants to protect or the legally aged viewers of adult content.
This is a pretty controversial topic, and it is really difficult to talk about when it is so easy to get side tracked into a discussion on the moral pros and cons of pornography in the first place. Debate can get pretty heated, and opinions can be swayed pretty easily when you're discussing something that many find morally objectionable. When discussing whether the adult content industry should be regulated to restrict access to over 18s, an entirely different argument tends to launch, where the original question is stonewalled and debaters feel pressured to instead take a stand against it, lest they become the sleazy guy who wants more porn.
We were recently featured in Wired.co.uk, covering how and why we think we're in the best position to help implement the right tools to do the job. We've found ourselves in the middle of a situation with multiple moral and economic interests, which the article is fairly good at pointing out. Perhaps it was dangerous of us to think we could weigh in objectively, however, we genuinely believe we have the tools to provide a much better situation for ALL parties involved - to better protect those who should be protected from adult content, to actually meet the legislative goals and to create an environment where content providers are willing and easily able to bring in restrictions, rather than desperately trying to get around them.
At Veridu, we simply offer low cost tools that actually work instead of the current security theater that the traditional tv-channels are being forced to use. The danger we want to prevent is that by implementing inefficient or sub-par security measures, everyone loses. In the current TV scenario, the business loses, and may seek to find other ways to get content out (e.g. moving online/offshore or simply swallowing penalty fines and continuing to broadcast), and people are driven to tubing sites where there are no restrictions.
And what of the criticism that we're cashing in? The people truly cashing in are the Experians of this world that have lobbied governments to have their 'security theater' made mandatory - and it will certainly be them cashing in if legislation is put in to require credit checks for all players in this field.
And for the users worried about their social data in use? What many people don't realize is that the current proposal results in a process where when they sign up the site has to check against data bureaus for age - which can leave footprints on their credit files as access requests are all logged. It won't be difficult for someone to look up another person's credit file and see that it has been accessed by a provider of adult content and use that information to blackmail or harass them. What we propose instead is to use a variety of data sources to get a much more accurate picture of a user (read more on how below), but to keep that data anonymous and simply communicate to the site that "this user is over 18." This protects users from blackmail for using a service that is legal (let's move aside from any moral arguments here), our proposed security measures would genuinely prevent under age users from accessing sites and it would be cheap and easy for adult providers to implement, meaning they would be more likely to work within the legislation than try to get around it.
So what exactly is Veridu's role in all of this? What are we proposing and why will it be better?
To us, it is a question of practicalities. We're attempting to approach the topic as objectively as possible. We see the issue as one of confronting reality - the harsh reality that a lot of under age internet users are accessing adult content, and the UK Government wants to do something about it. For us it isn't about being pro porn or anti porn, we've weighed in on the topic because we have the tools to help implement a change that will help protect children and teenagers in the UK.
In essence, if the Government is going to make a change to regulate the industry, where we have opinions is on how that regulation is bought in. Currently, a number of adult content providers already enforce age restrictions – video stores and TV networks have age controls, but online video streaming services do not. And online video streaming services originate in all kinds of different countries that aren’t subject to controls yet. We want all adult content providers to have to have the same levels of regulation. Not because some might have to go further, or pay more, or lose profit margins, but because when only one area gets regulated, underage users get driven to another. It hardly matters to a teenager that they can’t buy porn from the video store, when they can instantly and easily access it online with no restrictions.
Our stand isn’t one of trying to make any moral decisions for the viewer, or comment on the pros and cons of the legislation, but instead to point out that what is being proposed isn’t going to achieve the goals it is meant to. Our technology has a range of different applications and we are incredibly proud to help a range of businesses make the internet a safer place. We have the tools to help make sure there are no unintended consequences, and the proposed changes do their job and to make a real, positive change.
Finding the most effective method
So how do we make that change? How might content providers efficiently regulate users? What are these issues and unintended consequences?
No one knows better than we do the severe limitations of trying to use ID methods designed years ago for the offline world in an ever changing and developing online world. The biggest problem in checking someone’s ID online is not the problem of getting legitimate details, but ensuring that those details are owned by the person entering them – also known as authenticating those details. The current legislative proposal seeks to rely on people entering credit card details or social security numbers to gain access to an adult site.
There are two inherent problems with this proposal. The first, is the authentication issue. In the offline world, a user is authenticated by the person behind the counter looking at the passport, seeing that it is real (perhaps by scanning it, looking for watermarks and generally knowing the signs of a falsified live document), then looks to its holder to see if the photo matches. Thus the holder is a) verified - by accepting that the details on their passport grant them access to the video store/across the border/into the nightclub, and b) authenticated – the store clerk, border control operator or bouncer accepts that the holder of the passport is the true owner of those credentials.
But how is the legislation proposing to achieve this online? In short, it isn’t. The legislation requires users to enter their credit card details as a way to verify they are over 18, or to enter a social security number. The gaping hole is in authentication – there is nothing to actually determine if the person entering the credit card details is the true owner of those details.
The second problem comes from usability and privacy concerns – the legitimate users suddenly have a big hindrance, a new barrier to entry, and it will likely turn them off. So what’s the problem with that, I hear you say? Why should I care that its harder to watch porn? Sure, we’ll concede that there are a number of people who think porn should be banned outright. But this is not a debate about probation, nor even its controversial efficacy. This debate is about unintended consequences.
Never has there been an industry that more clearly illustrates the principle of supply and demand than the adult industry. Related industries are oft called ‘the world’s oldest professions’ and it speaks volumes about the constant demand for adult content. The current problem with limiting age access to offline/traditional broadcast formats without limiting online access is that it drives users to online streaming services. The same effect of driving people elsewhere is likely to happen under the current process – the difficulty of access will drive a large portion of viewers to unregulated, black-market style sites. And it isn't just the extra verification step that will cause this – no-one wants their social security number or credit card details identifying that they visit adult sites. The invariable hesitance to use a service that formally links a user’s ID to a adult site will be a big issue, and a big driver of users meeting their needs in less regulated ways. Only the truly motivated will want to get into the new ‘legitimate’ regulated sites, and they’ll have to jump through hurdles to get there. But these hurdles won’t necessarily be ones that truly solve the authentication problem.
So with these two factors in mind, what will we see happening? The new majority of users aren’t going to be the over 18s, but instead will be the clever 15 year old boys that are willing and cunning enough to go to the extra effort of faking their way into a adult streaming service.
Learning from other examples
The gambling industry is an excellent example of ID verification lessons that can be learned. When regulation was proposed, there was a similar level of skepticism over whether it should be regulated instead of banned, whether it would even work, and predictions were made that the industry would crash and burn. Instead, we’ve seen the industry clean itself up and become much more legitimate. There was a strong recognition that without regulating the industry, black market effects would continue, online gambling sites that trick users into entering details would remain in existence, and people that wanted to gamble would find a way.
Age verification has instead helped the well behaved players in the game to thrive and grow encouraging safe, legal practices and most importantly targeting age appropriate users.
Veridu calls for industry to implement better systems
To overcome the issues , Veridu pitched to the APN the solution of setting up a federated ID gateway that can easily and effectively verify the ages of users and allow them to identify only their age through a token that will ensure anonymity and arms-length to the actual content. This would result in much lower costs for vendors, better authentication, and shared or distributed one-time costs, as each new user on any site would only need to be verified once and then just authenticate themselves going forward. A further upside for the Industry is that verified users are likely to be more committed and more engaged. Veridu’s online verification tools are virtually painless for users - just a few clicks of a button. No uploading passport photos, entering credit card details or worrying about associating official identity data with their online activities.
Veridu uses both traditional data sources that add to an ever growing database of information, and non-traditional sources that are much harder to fake, including online footprints and reputation data, to provide a much more comprehensive ID solution that is cheap for vendors, and painless for users. Veridu provides an incredibly cost effective ID solution that solves all of the key problems that the proposed system raises, and can be efficiently implemented by the Adult Industry, along with a range of other sectors.
In order to bring in the right system, Veridu calls on the industry to take the first step and anticipate the legislation – solve the problem in the way that works, rather than having the legislators impose a flawed ‘solution’. Federated ID gateway for all participating merchants
Veridu advocates taking inspiration from the German system where the ID process across a number of industries is centralized through ID gateways.
The solution proposed by Veridu is ‘tokenized’ – i.e. the user can identify themselves to the ID gateway and receive a token with only the parameters needed for that particular site.
This enables an exceptionally user friendly, efficient system that meets everyone’s goals; reduces privacy and data misuse concerns; can be rolled out across a range of industries where access needs to be controlled; and protects the vulnerable - from gambling sites to computer games and even e-commerce sites that want some more security.
Veridu has got the technology to make this happen at a price point that can easily be rolled out across the industry, and other industries that want to take a stand and truly verify the identities of its users before regulators make that decision for them. We invite anyone interested in improving their verification systems to get in contact and talk to us about how we can help, and we look forward to seeing the adult entertainment industry have true restrictions on the ages of its viewers and ensure the right people are viewing its content.
