{"id":3816,"date":"2013-07-26T09:39:24","date_gmt":"2013-07-26T08:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=3816"},"modified":"2013-07-26T09:39:24","modified_gmt":"2013-07-26T08:39:24","slug":"asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/07\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html","title":{"rendered":"ASA UK Study Confirms Internet Age Verification Does Not Work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new study from the UK <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/asa\" target=\"_blank\">Advertising Standards Authority<\/a> (ASA) has revealed what everybody else already knew. Internet age verification checks do not work and children are thus registering on social media websites under false ages. Shock.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The research found that advertisers were acting in &#8220;<em>good faith<\/em>&#8221; by taking account of the registered age of social media account holders when delivering their ads but, as a result of registering under a false age, many children were being presented with adverts for age-restricted products including for gambling, alcohol and &#8220;<em>overtly sexual<\/em>&#8221; dating services.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Summary of the Key Findings<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\u2022 All but four of the 24 children aged between 11 and 15 who participated registered on a social media site using a false age.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u2022 Ten participants (42% of children) were falsely registered as aged 18 or over.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u2022 Of the 218 ads served to those registered as over 18, 24 (11%) were for products that \u201cmust not be directed at people under 18 through the selection of media or the context in which they appear\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u2022 Nine participants were aged below the permitted age of registration on at least one social media site.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u2022 Of the 427 ads the children saw in total, 420, or 98.4%, stuck to the rules.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Naturally the ASA&#8217;s focus here is to explore whether they need to take a tougher line on age-restricted ads in social media or if further research is needed. But it also has relevance to the government&#8217;s recent work to clamp down on adult internet content and shows the difficulty of trying to restrict online content by age.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bq1\"><p><strong>Guy Parker, ASA CEO, said: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>On the face of it, our survey suggests that advertisers are sticking to the rules but children aren\u2019t. But before we all lay the blame with parents and guardians, we need to be honest: if advertisers and social media companies know that children say they\u2019re older than they are, don\u2019t they have a crucial part to play too? We\u2019ll be talking to them about self-declared age-gating and considering whether we need to take a tougher line. But we all need to be part of this conversation about how best to set the boundaries within which our children explore the world around them<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The simple and inescapable fact is most websites (both big and small alike) have no easy, cost effective, safe or secure way of being able to confirm a members identify. Generally speaking only governments have the ability to do that and as a website owner there&#8217;s practically nothing you can do to be sure that somebody is who they say they are; everything is largely taken on faith.<\/p>\n<p>The ASA would like to see improvements to age-verification but realistically there&#8217;s not a lot they can do that would be viable\u00a0and the vast majority of websites are not setup to handle credit card style verification, which has its own unique faults, not to mention big requirements and security concerns. In any case most of the parents we know don\u2019t seem to have a problem with their kids having a Facebook etc. account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study from the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has revealed what everybody else already knew. Internet age verification checks do not work and children are thus registering on social media websites under false ages. Shock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[99,473,479],"class_list":["post-3816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uk_isp_news","tag-asa","tag-censorship","tag-security"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>ASA UK Study Confirms Internet Age Verification Does Not Work - ISPreview UK<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A new study from the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has revealed what everybody else already knew. Internet age verification checks do not work\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/07\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ASA UK Study Confirms Internet Age Verification Does Not Work - ISPreview UK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A new study from the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has revealed what everybody else already knew. Internet age verification checks do not work\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/07\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ISPreview UK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ispreview\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ispreview\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-26T08:39:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ispreview_uk_logo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Jackson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ispreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ispreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Jackson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mark Jackson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/de66a8b4e937c21c80e443d1bf9c35d5\"},\"headline\":\"ASA UK Study Confirms Internet Age Verification Does Not Work\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-26T08:39:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html\"},\"wordCount\":516,\"commentCount\":5,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Advertising Standards\",\"Censorship\",\"Security\"],\"articleSection\":[\"ISP News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html\",\"name\":\"ASA UK Study Confirms Internet Age Verification Does Not Work - ISPreview UK\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-26T08:39:24+00:00\",\"description\":\"A new study from the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has revealed what everybody else already knew. Internet age verification checks do not work\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"ASA UK Study Confirms Internet Age Verification Does Not Work\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/\",\"name\":\"ISPreview UK\",\"description\":\"Top Broadband ISP and Mobile Provider Information Site\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"ISPreview.co.uk\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/ispreview_uk_logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/ispreview_uk_logo.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":1000,\"caption\":\"ISPreview.co.uk\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/ispreview\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/ispreview\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/mjack\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/bsky.app\\\/profile\\\/ispreview.bsky.social\",\"https:\\\/\\\/mastodon.social\\\/@ispreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/de66a8b4e937c21c80e443d1bf9c35d5\",\"name\":\"Mark Jackson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/01\\\/nggallery_import\\\/Mark-Jackson-96x96.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/01\\\/nggallery_import\\\/Mark-Jackson-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/01\\\/nggallery_import\\\/Mark-Jackson-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Mark Jackson\"},\"description\":\"By Mark Jackson Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/ispreview\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/ispreview\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ispreview.co.uk\\\/index.php\\\/author\\\/markj\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"ASA UK Study Confirms Internet Age Verification Does Not Work - ISPreview UK","description":"A new study from the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has revealed what everybody else already knew. Internet age verification checks do not work","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/07\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"ASA UK Study Confirms Internet Age Verification Does Not Work - ISPreview UK","og_description":"A new study from the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has revealed what everybody else already knew. Internet age verification checks do not work","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/07\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html","og_site_name":"ISPreview UK","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ispreview","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ispreview","article_published_time":"2013-07-26T08:39:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":1000,"url":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ispreview_uk_logo.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Mark Jackson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ispreview","twitter_site":"@ispreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Jackson","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/07\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/07\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html"},"author":{"name":"Mark Jackson","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/de66a8b4e937c21c80e443d1bf9c35d5"},"headline":"ASA UK Study Confirms Internet Age Verification Does Not Work","datePublished":"2013-07-26T08:39:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/07\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html"},"wordCount":516,"commentCount":5,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#organization"},"keywords":["Advertising Standards","Censorship","Security"],"articleSection":["ISP News"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/07\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/07\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html","url":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/07\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html","name":"ASA UK Study Confirms Internet Age Verification Does Not Work - ISPreview UK","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-07-26T08:39:24+00:00","description":"A new study from the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has revealed what everybody else already knew. Internet age verification checks do not work","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/07\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/07\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/07\/asa-uk-study-confirms-internet-age-verification-does-not-work.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ASA UK Study Confirms Internet Age Verification Does Not Work"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/","name":"ISPreview UK","description":"Top Broadband ISP and Mobile Provider Information Site","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#organization","name":"ISPreview.co.uk","url":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ispreview_uk_logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ispreview_uk_logo.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000,"caption":"ISPreview.co.uk"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ispreview","https:\/\/x.com\/ispreview","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/mjack\/","https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/ispreview.bsky.social","https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@ispreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/de66a8b4e937c21c80e443d1bf9c35d5","name":"Mark Jackson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/nggallery_import\/Mark-Jackson-96x96.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/nggallery_import\/Mark-Jackson-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/nggallery_import\/Mark-Jackson-96x96.jpg","caption":"Mark Jackson"},"description":"By Mark Jackson Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ispreview","https:\/\/x.com\/ispreview"],"url":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/author\/markj"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}