At first glance, consumer age verification may seem like a common-sense measure to keep kids safe from stumbling across inappropriate material during their browsing sessions. After all, we have to show ID to get into all sorts of age-gated spaces out in the physical world, like a 21+ bar or concert, or buying a scratch-off at the local convenience store. There are a few key differences here though. After all, the bar that cards you at the door is not keeping a digital record of your attendance in perpetuity (at least not yet...), nor is the corner store keeping a ledger of everyone who buys lottery tickets. And while some may say they have nothing to hide and thus would take no issue if they did, this ignores several very real ramifications of keeping sensitive information in a confined digital space that only needs a small crack for the dam to break. Is it possible that our digital landscape has become so synonymous with the real world that we’ve forgotten the two are, while now inextricably-linked thanks to an ever-technologically dependent world, still operating under different systems and principles? In the digital era where we are constantly surveilled from all areas of life, protection of privacy might just be more important than ever.

It’s probably no secret that data breaches are up and consumer trust is down. A 2025 study from the Thales survey group found that most industries experienced a decline in consumer trust with only banking, insurance, and government seeing steady numbers or slight increases. These attitudes don’t just persist in the highly individualistic and hyper-protective culture of the US either – Thales surveyed over 14,000 consumers across 14 countries to arrive at these figures, and their implications are telling about the relationship between consumers and the digital sector moving forward. We are getting savvier about our online choices, and we are becoming more wary of anyone promising to keep our data locked up tight.

And why shouldn’t trust levels be falling? After all, data breaches are very obviously on an upward spike with no signs of slowing down – cybercrime costs are rising 15% annually with nearly half of all data breaches involve sensitive customer information like home addresses and social security numbers. It’s no wonder that consumers are guarding their information fiercely in the modern era. Never before in human history has so much personally vulnerable information been rendered so accessible to bad actors. Not even our healthcare information is safe, with HIPPA reporting more and more breaches every year, affecting over 130 million people in 2024 alone.

Even more concerning are the stats about how these data breaches are handled. According to IBM’s 2024 data breach reports, the average time to identify and contain attacks was 258 days. Though this number may be down from 2023 reports, that’s still nearly a year during which anything from social security numbers to home addresses to family member names could be floating around in the dark web for the highest bidder to steal, seriously jeopardizing not only the reputation of the business long-term but also the financial well-being of its customers. These numbers certainly don’t inspire confidence – particularly when one considers that all kinds of cyber attacks from malware to social engineering have been exponentially on the rise.

So, what’s this got to do with age verification of porn consumers? Well, it’s got everything to do with the services who have sprung up to take on this new form of liability, and with it bringing a whole host of other liabilities. Many new age verification softwares want to take not only records of identification cards like driver’s licenses and state IDs, but they also want to store biometric data used to compare the consumers’ face to their ID for verification. While this may be quite the deterrent for inquiring young minds, considering the prevalence of digital attacks and the concentration of user data within these services, is it worth the cost to give up on individual responsibility? The constitutionality of such practices is also widely up for debate, which presents a whole host of ethical concerns to be discussed elsewhere.

A savvy hacker could use your drivers license to open up a whole host of problems. Fraudulent credit cards, bank accounts, and loans in your name are just a few examples of the harm your ID can do in the wrong hands. And if even medical institutions are not hallowed halls of data privacy, what’s to stop a malicious attempt on the data of porn consumers worldwide? Depending on the amount of data linked to your verification, this could even turn into attempts at extortion and blackmail if the hacker is able to connect a keyword history to your ID. Suddenly, not only do your private fantasies about consenting adults have the potential to result in stolen identity and financial hardship, but they also have the ability to ruin your reputation and drive a wedge between you and your loved ones. Even the most innocent and generic of searches can become a community’s reason for ousting someone who is by all accounts an upstanding citizen. Critiques of the cultural shame around healthy adult sexuality aside, does anyone deserve to be held disproportionately accountable to harmless behaviors in the privacy of their own space? Would any of us truly come up squeaky clean? And are you willing to put your most sensitive information and your face up against those search results, knowing that there is the potential for long-term devastation?

Still, the question of how to keep developmentally harmful content away from prying eyes of children remains. Thankfully, many time-tested, award-winning solutions exist to help parents, guardians, educators, and other responsible adults make informed decisions about the content their kids are exposed to. Our Parental Controls resource details several options that remove the need for government-instituted blanket infringements on adult consumers’ right to access content as they see fit. Tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Google have all developed free tools to limit and moderate access to questionable materials, websites, and applications, and a myriad of premium options exist to go even further into helping guardians protect their families and open up difficult conversations about the digital world. Our youth are coming of age in an unprecedented era of access to information, media, and all kinds of unfiltered items. It is possible to protect both the freedoms and autonomy of consenting adults while being mindful of the access our kids receive, and with just a few clicks we can set healthy boundaries that allow for the worlds of adults and children to coexist without infringing on our privacy or jeopardizing our data, if only we are willing to seek out solutions and leave the government at the front door of our private homes  – where many would argue it belongs.