Verifying Ages Online Is a Daunting Task, Even for Experts

Just how hard can it be to verify the age of a person online? After all, privacy experts have been complaining for years about how much advertisers know about people who use the Internet. The answer, it turns out, is very hard. Despite attempts by privacy advocates, academics, law enforcement officials, technologists and advertisers to determine a person’s age on the Internet, the reality is that, online, it is extremely difficult to tell whether someone is an 11-year-old girl or a 45-year-old man.