If you’ve been following the wave of age-gating laws sweeping across the country and the globe, you’ve probably noticed that lawmakers, tech companies, and advocates all seem to be using different terms for what sounds like the same thing. Age verification, age assurance, age estimation, age gating—they get thrown around interchangeably, but they technically mean different things. And those differences matter a lot when we’re talking about your rights, your privacy, your data, and who gets to access information online.
[click the source link below to read the different definitions – ed]
Why This Confusion Matters
Politicians and tech companies love using these terms interchangeably because it obscures what they’re actually proposing. A law that requires “age assurance” sounds reasonable and moderate. But if that law defines age assurance as requiring government ID verification, it’s not moderate at all—it’s mass surveillance. Similarly, when Instagram says it’s using “age estimation” to protect teens, that sounds privacy-friendly. But when their estimation fails and forces you to upload your driver’s license instead, the privacy promise evaporates.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most lawmakers writing these bills have no idea how any of this technology actually works. They don’t know that age estimation systems routinely fail for people of color, trans individuals, and people with disabilities. They don’t know that verification systems have error rates. They don’t even seem to understand that the terms they’re using mean different things. The fact that their terminology is all over the place—using “age assurance,” “age verification,” and “age estimation” interchangeably—makes this ignorance painfully clear, and leaves the onus on platforms to choose whichever option best insulates them from liability.
Language matters because it shapes how we think about these systems. “Assurance” sounds gentle. “Verification” sounds official. “Estimation” sounds technical and impersonal, and also admits its inherent imprecision. But they all involve collecting your data and create a metaphysical age gate to the internet. The terminology is deliberately confusing, but the stakes are clear: it’s your privacy, your data, and your ability to access the internet without constant identity checks. Don’t let fuzzy language disguise what these systems really do.
Republished from EFF’s Deeplinks blog.
Source: Age Verification, Estimation, Assurance, Oh My! A Guide To The Terminology | Techdirt
Robin Edgar
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