64 percent back Online Safety Act but censorship worries persist

A new survey of 2,000 UK consumers shows that 64 percent agree the Online Safety Act protects children, with support higher among parents of young children and lower among ‘empty nest’ parents.

However, the data from verification and anti-fraud platform Sumsub also shows 48 percent concerned it will lead to censorship.

In addition 57 percent believe that age restrictions ‘are already too easily bypassed’ and ‘aren’t fit for purpose’. 35 percent report seeing age restrictions for ‘safe for work’ (non-harmful and not just for adults) content. On the other hand 32 percent report regularly viewing adult content on the internet that should be restricted but isn’t.

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There’s a lack of trust in the ability of AI to determine age too. 26 percent report not trusting AI-augmented facial recognition scans to accurately estimate age. Interestingly, 69 percent of those aged 25-34 -- those typically with the most digital literacy and exposure to AI -- trust it the most. Those aged 55 and above were most suspicious of facial scan-led verification methods, with a third not trusting the technology.

Pavel Goldman-Kalaydin, head of AI/ML at Sumsub says:

We’ve seen countless examples of people getting past age verification checks -- from sophisticated 3D models to simple screenshots from low resolution games. Clearly more has to be done to plug the gaps and ultimately protect children from harmful digital content.

Online firms have a role to play too. Adopting multiple layers of verification -- such as a scan of an ID document like a passport alongside a live facial scan -- is vital. Facial recognition technology isn’t foolproof. This will make it that much harder to bypass checks while minimising unnecessary user friction to encourage compliance.

The growing sophistication and availability of AI generated images, videos and documents presents a new and growing threat to traditional methods of identity verification -- including age estimation. From Q1 2024 to 2025 in the UK, Sumsub’s data shows that deepfakes have increased by 900 percent while synthetic document forging, when Gen AI is used to create artificial identity documents, increased by 275 percent.

You can see the full data on the Censuswide site.

Image credit: SergeyNivens/depositphotos.com