Many people created an online persona entirely separate from their offline one.īut the experience of consuming content and communicating online is increasingly less like an anonymous public square and more like going to the bank, with measures to prove that you are who you say you are. Since the days of dial-up modems and AOL chat rooms, people could traverse huge swaths of the web without divulging any personal details. The changes, which have picked up speed over the last two years, could upend one of the internet’s central traits: the ability to remain anonymous. Laws in Germany and France require pornography websites to check visitors’ ages. The popular game Roblox requires players to upload a form of government identification - and a selfie to prove the ID belongs to them - if they want access to a voice chat feature. People in Japan must provide a document proving their age to use the dating app Tinder. In response to mounting pressure from activists, parents and regulators who believe tech companies haven’t done enough to protect children online, businesses and governments around the globe are placing major parts of the internet behind stricter digital age checks. “I decided that it wasn’t worth the stress,” he said. He had three options: Enter his credit card information, upload a photo identification like a passport or skip the video. Errington, who is over 50, needed to prove he was old enough to watch “Space Is the Place,” a 1974 movie starring the jazz musician Sun Ra. Richard Errington clicked to stream a science-fiction film from his home in Britain last month when YouTube carded him.
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