When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Windows 11 will soon tell apps how old you are. Microsoft is adding system-level age verification APIs to Windows 11, allowing registered apps to query the user's age. Microsoft is building automated age verification directly into Windows 11 in the form of system-level APIs that will share your verified age with registered apps. To be clear, the system won't pass your age or date of birth to said apps.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. The actual teen protections are more complicated. I'm not a parent, but I'm looking at the Meta settlement wondering if our kids are any safer. If you haven't heard already, Meta agreed last Wednesday to settle a lawsuit over Facebook and Instagram's affect on children. Brought by 47 states, Washington D.C., and several U.S. territories, the suit alleged that Meta purposely made its platforms addictive to kids, ultimately causing negative mental health outcomes like anxiety, depression, and even suicide.

Look Up Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Say More Switch Off Creator Playbook Mashable Voices Trending Now Mashable Selects Safety Net Versus Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List In My Bag All Series Anna Iovine is the associate editor of features at Mashable. Previously, as the sex and relationships reporter, she covered topics ranging from dating apps to pelvic pain. Before Mashable, Anna was a social editor at VICE and freelanced for publications such as Slate and the Columbia Journalism Review. Follow her on Bluesky . When new technology emerges, pornography soon follows.

The issue of AI sovereignty was in focus at London Tech Week. The issue of AI sovereignty was in focus at London Tech Week. UK sets out AI infrastructure push at London Tech Week - how does it stack up? Ownership of the commanding heights of the AI economy is a political talking point around the world, as countries seek to assert some control of a technology dominated by the US and China. London Tech Week, the showcase event for the UK tech industry, focused heavily on that theme this week.

Only users who have already registered and completed age verification will be able to access the world's largest porn site. Pornhub is blocking itself in the United Kingdom on February 2, arguing that the country's age verification laws are ineffective, the company announced on Tuesday. As of February 2, only users who have already registered with Pornhub and completed age verification will be able to access the site. New users will not be able to register. The move comes after a new set of provisions aimed at keeping minors from viewing porn kicked in last July, requiring adults to submit to age-estimating face scans, ID document uploads, credit card checks, and more, in order to verify that they are not minors.

Confirming which users are kids is politically fraught and a technical nightmare. Here's what moves from OpenAI and the FTC tell us. How do tech companies check if their users are kids? This question has taken on new urgency recently thanks to growing concern about the dangers that can arise when children talk to AI chatbots. For years Big Tech asked for birthdays (that one could make up) to avoid violating child privacy laws, but they weren't required to moderate content accordingly. Two developments over the last week show how quickly things are changing in the US and how this issue is becoming a new battleground, even among parents and child-safety advocates.

Age Verification Is Reaching a Global Tipping Point. Is TikTok's Strategy a Good Compromise? TikTok's new age-detection tech seems like a better solution than automatically banning youth accounts. But experts say it still requires social platforms to surveil users more closely. Governments worldwide are moving to limit children's access to social media as lawmakers question whether platforms are capable of enforcing their own minimum age requirements.

Alabama passed a 10 percent porn tax last year, as Utah and Pennsylvania eye similar bills. Half the country has enacted age-verification laws to prevent minors from viewing porn. As age-verification laws continue to dismantle the adult industry--and determine the future of free speech on the internet --a Utah lawmaker proposed a bill this week that would enforce a tax on porn sites that operate within the state. Introduced by state senator Calvin Musselman, a Republican, the bill would impose a 7 percent tax on total receipts "from sales, distributions, memberships, subscriptions, performances, and content amounting to material harmful to minors that is produced, sold, filmed, generated, or otherwise based" in Utah. If passed, the bill would go into effect in May and would also require adult sites to pay a $500 annual fee to the State Tax Commission.

The Age-Gated Internet Is Sweeping the US. Half of the country now requires age verification to watch porn or access "harmful" content. Digital rights advocates are pushing back against legislation they say will make the internet less safe. To prove you're an adult, you may have to upload your ID or submit to an age-verifying face scan. Members of Congress considered 19 online safety bills Tuesday that may soon have a major impact on the future of the internet as age-verification laws have spread to half of the US and around the world .

YouTube is one of the most popular online platforms in the U.S. among all age groups. But not all content on the video-sharing site is appropriate for all ages. While the platform, like most, has restrictions on certain content, such as violence and nudity, for users under 18, these safeguards have in the past been easy for young users to circumvent by entering an older birthdate on their account. But now, the company is rolling out an artificial intelligence-powered tool to estimate a user's age based on their activity on the platform "and then use that signal, regardless of the birthday in the account, to deliver our age-appropriate product experiences and protection," said James Beser, director of product management at YouTube Youth, in blog post last month. The technology, according to Beser, has been used in other markets "for some time" and will begin being tested in the U.S. on Wednesday before a wider rollout.