It’s spring, and enforcement is in the air. A wave of age assurance and online safety regulation has reached the point at which it must crest toward consequences, if it is to be effective in limiting harms to children online. Regulators and lawmakers are issuing promises to take their responsibility seriously, and to use the full force of the punitive powers they have been granted. Meanwhile, porn sites and big tech firms are engaged in a game of legislative brinkmanship over whether age assurance should be deployed at the device level, by app stores or by individual websites. But a new rule in the state of Missouri demonstrates the risk in continually directing responsibility for age assurance in a circle – which is that eventually, everyone will end up doing it. A release from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey says the state is introducing a “first-in-the-nation rule requiring commercial pornographic websites to verify the age of users not just on the website but also on the device level – creating the most robust age verification standard in the country, all while protecting the privacy of adults.” While other states see their age assurance laws fall to legal challenges from industry lobby groups with deep pockets, Missouri is forging ahead in the opposite direction. In addition to dual-level age verification , it requires all identifying data to be deleted immediately after age verification takes place. The rule applies to porn on search engines as well as on dedicated sites, to ensure kids “are not exposed to adult content through otherwise innocent searches.” Bailey appears determined to enforce the rule, calling it “a direct enforcement mechanism for existing state statute prohibiting the distribution of pornography to minors.” “This action forces companies to take responsibility, and aligns them with other age-restricted industries,” he says. “We are taking action to make sure Missouri families are not left at the mercy of big tech and international porn conglomerates . If they want to distribute pornography in Missouri, they must prove their users are adults. If they don’t, they won’t be allowed to operate here.” “This is about making Missouri the safest state in the nation for kids.” Per the release, the rule makes it an “unfair, deceptive, fraudulent, or otherwise unlawful practice,” for any developer of a mobile operating system on at least 10 million devices to not enable age verification. It is being promulgated under the attorney general’s authority granted in Missouri’s Consumer Protection statute and will be published in the Missouri Register on May 1. The Attorney General’s Office has also established a public complaint process and enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance.
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