{"id":254058,"date":"2026-05-24T07:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T11:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/24\/age-verification-on-websites-and-your-privacy\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T08:55:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T12:55:06","slug":"age-verification-on-websites-and-your-privacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/24\/age-verification-on-websites-and-your-privacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Age verification on websites and your privacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/money\/business\/tech\/2026\/05\/24\/age-verification-on-websites-your-privacy\/90217725007\/\">Age verification on websites and your privacy<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/money\/business\/tech\/2026\/05\/24\/age-verification-on-websites-your-privacy\/90217725007\/\">https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/money\/business\/tech\/2026\/05\/24\/age-verification-on-websites-your-privacy\/90217725007\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-05-24 07:01:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.azcentral.com\">www.azcentral.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>May 24, 2026, 5:01 a.m. MT<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><strong>Question:<\/strong> I\u2019m starting to get more websites asking me to verify my age before letting me in \u2014 is this safe?<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><strong>Answer:<\/strong> What started as an effort to keep children away from harmful online content is beginning to reshape how adults use the internet as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">A growing number of states have passed laws requiring websites to verify a user\u2019s age before allowing access to certain content or services. Most of the early laws focused on adult websites, but newer proposals are expanding to include social media platforms and apps that use personalized content feeds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The goal is understandable: lawmakers want to make it harder for children to access harmful material online. The challenge is figuring out how to confirm someone\u2019s age without creating new privacy risks for everyone else.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"gnt_ar_b_h2\">How age verification works<\/h2>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Some websites use simple methods that ask users to enter a birth date, but those systems are easy to bypass. More advanced verification systems require something harder to fake, such as a government-issued ID, a credit card, or even a facial scan.<\/p>\n<p>USA TODAY Shopping: Shop sales in tech, home, fashion, beauty &#038; more curated by our editors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">That\u2019s where privacy concerns begin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The more accurate the verification method becomes, the more sensitive information users may have to provide just to browse a website or use an app.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">In many cases, the verification process is not handled by the website itself. Instead, a third-party verification company is brought in to confirm your age and return a simple \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno\u201d response to the site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Many of these companies say they do not permanently store uploaded identification documents, but privacy advocates remain concerned about the risks. Any company that collects driver\u2019s licenses, facial scans, or other personal information becomes a potentially valuable target for hackers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation argue that widespread age verification could slowly normalize the idea that&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/money\/business\/tech\/2026\/05\/24\/age-verification-on-websites-your-privacy\/90217725007\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Age verification on websites and your privacy https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/money\/business\/tech\/2026\/05\/24\/age-verification-on-websites-your-privacy\/90217725007\/ Publish Date: 2026-05-24 07:01:00 Source Domain: www.azcentral.com&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":254060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/gcdn\/-mm-\/05538d287c7a22c613b5d061484affb8271eac04\/c=0-0-2121-1198\/local\/-\/media\/2017\/06\/02\/Phoenix\/Phoenix\/636320216805234891-ThinkstockPhotos-493883916.jpg?width=2121&height=1198&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254058"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254062,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254058\/revisions\/254062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}