Children online are facing more and more threats / Source: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Over the past fewer years, more and more authorities have begun to put force on the access of the youngest to adult content. Age verification utilizing user data and censorship of certain materials became an up-to-date topic. With each fresh bill and change in social media, there are more different voices. While this is officially the goal of caring for the welfare of children, skeptics wonder if there is more behind them.
Practically unlimited access to the net since childhood is the reality of many young adults. To see the material inappropriate for the youngest net users, you didn't request to know about adult websites – you just had to come across the disturbing creepypast or click on the seemingly innocent video on YouTube. These times seem to be going back. Changes concern not only creators who gotta censor curses or brutality in their materials, but besides grey users moving around the network.
Act Behind Act
The United Kingdom passed the Online Safety Act on 26 October 2023, and the main provisions came into force in July 2025. The Act obliges online platforms to act against illegal content. In addition, children are to be protected from legal content, but are inappropriate for them, for example from pornography. Since the introduction of fresh social media rules specified as Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok or Reddit, as well as more than half of the most popular adult websites in the United Kingdom, have introduced requirements to confirm adulthood by utilizing individual IDs, biometrics or payment cards. The punishment for failure may be up to £18 million or up to 10% of income. Last December, AVS Group, an 18-page adult company, imposed a £1 million fine due to the failure to apply sufficiently effective age verification mechanisms.
In Australia on 29 November 2024, Parliament adopted the Online Safety Declaration Act, besides known as the more pictorial Social Media Minimum Age Act. The Act allows the government to find which platforms should not be available to users if they are not 16 years old. Almost an even year later, December 10, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter, Threads, Twitch, Snapchat, TikTok, Kick and YouTube were subject to age restrictions. Over 4.7 million accounts have been blocked. In the United States online safety is besides on the candlestick. Since Missouri's introduction of a fresh law in the first week of December last year, equally half the states require an ID card or face scan to verify age to be allowed into adult content on the Internet. Changes are besides made in another countries, as in Spain, which the Prime Minister announced on 3 February the introduction of an age limit akin to that in Australia. specified initiatives are discussed in France, Denmark and Turkey.
How is the case in Poland? According to an IBRIS survey conducted for “Rzeczpospolita” on 1067 people, more than half (52.9 percent) of the respondents considered the introduction of a social media regulation for people under 16 to be a good idea. 25.4 percent of the respondents were in favour of the educational run and leaving the decision to their parents, 12.3 percent for the deficiency of change. 9.4 percent had no opinion. The Citizens' Coalition announced the submission by the end of February of a bill limiting access to social media for people under 15. The initiators are Minister of Education Barbara Nowacka and MP Roman Gierty. Large technology companies would be liable for age verification. Deputy Minister of Digitization Dariusz Standerski stated that a regulation cutting off the youngest from social media should be introduced, but definitely with a circumstantial age threshold "should be preceded by an expert opinion and serious public discussion". Work on an effective verification tool is to be completed later this year. Minister of Digitalism and Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski showed more restraint. According to him, raising the age alone will not solve the problem and he called specified a communicative "populistic enough". As an example of circumventing bans, he gave social media users to children under the age of thirteen.
Changes on platforms
In addition to the different countries, circumstantial platforms besides decide to make it hard for minors to access the context for adult users. In the summertime of 2025, taxation videos gained large popularity on YouTube to hear that artificial intelligence would find the age of individuals based on the content they consume. The videos from a fewer years ago have been filled with ironic comments specified as “it is very useful for me, an adult working and drinking person”. Users highlighted the flaws of artificial intelligence determining age based on the viewed context. In the case of an AI error, it was up to users to prove their age.
Valve, the company behind the Steam platform, began to delete or hide in the game search engine marked as intended for adults only. This happened mostly under the force of payment providers like Visa, Mastercard or PayPal, who were worried about their reputation and legal risk. It is not without importance that organisations specified as Collective Shout, which point to content showing in a affirmative light sexual violence, remain. Steam followed the platform with games itch.io. Not only has eroticism suffered (including this unsettling legal or moral doubt), but besides any horrors, controversial games, and those of social concern.
ChatGPT, in turn, says OpenAI, is presently trained to admit the age of users based on the topics of their questions and the way they ask them, including the language used. This aims at adapting the tone, the scope of the information and the level of item of responses to circumstantial recipients, as well as limiting minors' access to certain content.
Joy and Fear
Due to many changes on the Internet, the discussion on age verification and restrictions on adult materials has become a hot topic. Supporters of specified solutions point to the welfare of children, who frequently encounter online self-harm promotion, drastic force or pornography, which can affect their psyche permanently. In addition, social media algorithms are designed to keep users' attention as long as possible, frequently utilizing controversial and negative content. This can lead to addiction and stimulation, which in turn has a negative effect on the ability to concentrate. circumstantial legal provisions are a way to combat the impact of the net on young audiences.
Among the opponents they enjoy the popularity of VPN service and dedicated applications circumventing restrictions. There are allegations of censorship, invasiveness and flaws of available age verification methods. Although the pages guarantee that the data utilized to verify age is not stored, skepticism arises as to whether facial recordings will not be utilized to train AI models. Private data could be utilized to profile consumers to better match advertising. The opponents of change are besides afraid about their privacy. Currently, without violating it, it is not possible to complete the Online Safety Act. The British Act imposes on platforms, including end-to-end encrypted message providers, the work to scan users' activities for the inclusion of kid pornography or terrorist content. The UK Government has ensured that it will refrain from enforcing this order until technically feasible.
As regards children, there are doubts as to how much the fresh regulations will actually guarantee their safety. Skeptics wonder whether mandatory age verification on the most popular websites will not consequence in young people utilizing more niche sources or prior sexual initiation. The question is besides whether a more advanced verification is adequate to guarantee that minors do not contact the incorrect content. Rachel Mary de Souza, an English Commissioner for Children's Affairs, conducted a survey in 2023, which she then repeated in 2025. The first time, 64 percent of respondents stated that they had seen pornographic material before reaching adulthood, while in 2025 – 70 percent. There has been an increase in children who found specified material by accident (from 38 to 59 percent). More respondents (59 percent) said they saw adult content unintentionally than as a consequence of a deliberate search (35 percent). The problem is even more hard to catch – alleged fetish content may look comparatively innocent to the uninitiated and stay undetected by algorithms. It should besides be noted that the comparison was published on August 19, and so about a period after the actual introduction of the Online Safety Act, so it is not a valid test of how effectively the bill will work.
In the case of the Australian Online Safety Declaration Act, you can praise the welfare of children, but the higher age threshold besides has its disadvantages. People who disagree from the environment in which they live – whether by race, appearance, disability or interests another than their peers – will find it hard to find their community. The unfulfilled request for acceptance can have a negative impact on the intellectual wellness of teenagers.
Controversy about changes in the net – felt both by children and adults – will not calm down soon. Reformists anticipate the safety of the youngest and the order in the network, while opponents fear limiting the freedom of speech and privacy of users. The situation is dynamic, and the effects of state and platform action can only be full assessed in a fewer years. Then everyone will verify which side of the dispute was right. It is now worth watching how changes affect the experience of net users. Those likely will feel them sooner or later.
Paulina Zielińska
