Age verification comes with risk

A recent breach once again underscores the tension between age-verification requirements and data privacy in laws seeking to protect children online.

When I wrote a few months ago about the unintended consequences of the UK’s data-privacy law, I warned that the very effort to protect children online can compromise their data. A new example has now emerged: a third-party vendor used by Discord was breached, resulting in the leak of private user details, including government IDs.

Discord is an online platform where individuals can message each other through text, voice and video in different hos...