Research out this month claimed that Yoti, a leading age verification app that counts Meta among its customers, is “extensively tracking users without consent” and was operating with chinks in its cyber armor that “potentially could be manipulated by third parties.”
In response, Yoti said it had passed the information on to be investigated, but added that researchers had drawn “certain conclusions and extrapolations that are incorrect and potentially harmful to public confidence in a technology built with the intention of promoting and supporting online safety.”
The European Commission, meanwhile, is developing its own age verification app, but it remains in the testing phase in countries like Denmark, Italy, France, Greece and Spain.
4. Kids will find a way
The clearest data point showing that Paris faces an uphill battle came in the hours and days after porn platforms stopped serving adult content in France.
Virtual private networks, which allow internet users to bypass geographic restrictions, saw a surge in demand after Aylo Freesites, the parent company of Pornhub, Redtube and YouPorn, suspended the sites for French users this month.
Within half an hour of the suspension, ProtonVPN saw registrations increase by 1,000 percent, the VPN service said in a post on X. Demand for VPNs overall increased by 334 percent on June 4 compared to the average of the 28 previous days, ranking site Top10VPN said.
Whatever Macron’s plans, you can count on kids to figure out any and all possible ways to thwart them.
Eliza Gkritsi and Ellen O’Regan reported from Brussels. Émile Marzolf and Klara Durand reported from Paris. Pieter Haeck contributed reporting from Brussels.
