Paper: Limitations and Pitfalls of Integrating PETs in Online Age Verification
slides-agews-limitations-and-pitfalls-of-integrating-pets-in-online-age-verification-00

Sylvain Chatel, Christian Knabenhans, Wouter Lueks, Mathilde Raynal, Carmela Troncoso, and Ádám Vécsi

Requiring age verification to access online services is a controversial topic. The main motivation for introducing age controls is the protection of children. Requiring a certain age to access particular online services impedes children’s access to content inappropriate to their age. Yet, this benefit is often contrasted with the dangers to privacy, freedom of information, and power balance that such checks can result in. Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs), specifically PETs based on zero-knowledge proofs, are often portrayed as a means to bring balance to this complex problem.

In this paper, we present our reflections on whether PETs can actually bring that balance. Concretely, we reflect on the fundamental limitations of PETs when it comes to addressing the problems associated with age verification regardless of architectural decisions; and on issues stemming from the architectural choices in which PETs that support online age verification are integrated “as a service” or in the form of libraries.