IT security specialist Karl Emil Nikka advises Sweden against following the UK's example of mandatory age verification on pornographic websites. The risk of data breaches and increased surveillance is too great, he argues.
Swedish Gender Equality Minister Nina Larsson wants Sweden to introduce technical barriers requiring age verification on pornographic websites to protect children from explicit sexual content.
The proposal is based on the British model where websites must verify users' age or identity, for example through authentication with ID cards or credit cards.
But Karl Emil Nikka, an IT security specialist, is strongly critical of the proposal. He points to serious flaws in the British solution, not least the risk of data breaches.
As an example, he mentions the leak from the messaging platform Discord, where photos of 70,000 users ended up in the wrong hands after a cyberattack in connection with the law change. Additionally, the barriers are easy to circumvent using VPN services, which caused the use of such services to skyrocket when the British law came into effect.
Risks surveillance
Nikka also warns that requirements for online identification bring Sweden closer to a type of surveillance that otherwise only exists in totalitarian states.
— It's a small problem as long as we live in a democracy, but it's damn dangerous to believe we always will, he says.
Instead, parents should be encouraged to use the controls already built into phones and other devices, where one can easily choose which sites to block.
— From a security perspective, it's the only reasonable solution, Nikka states.
Foreign sites attract
An additional risk with technical barriers is that young users turn to lesser-known foreign sites that don't care about legal requirements, Nikka argues. Jannike Tillå, head of communications and social benefit at the Swedish Internet Foundation, confirms this picture.
— According to experts in various countries, it seems that people have turned to other lesser-known websites abroad, she says.
However, Tillå believes that technical solutions can have a place, provided they are more anonymous than the British ones and combined with other measures.
— It can help raise thresholds and reduce exposure.
Conversations crucial
At the same time, she emphasizes the importance of complementing any technical solutions with investments in digital literacy and, above all, conversations between parents and children.
— That's where real protection begins. We know that many parents find it difficult to have the porn conversation, but you should do it early, says Jannike Tillå.
She stresses that the question of privacy and freedom online must not be set against child protection.
— We must find that balance and manage both things, she concludes.
