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These systems fail in predictable ways. False positives are common. Platforms identify minors as adults with youthful faces, or adults who are sharing family devices, or have otherwise unusual usage. They lock accounts, sometimes for days. False negatives also persist. Teenagers learn quickly how to evade checks by borrowing IDs, cycling accounts, or using VPNs. The appeal process itself creates new privacy risks. Platforms must store biometric data, ID images, and verification logs long enough to defend their decisions to regulators. So if an adult who is tired of submitting selfies to verify

This is where emerging age-restriction policy collides with existing privacy law. Modern data-protection regimes all rest on similar ideas: Collect only what you need, use it only for a defined purpose, and keep it only as long as necessary. Age enforcement undermines all three. To prove they are following age-verification rules, platforms must log verification attempts, retain evidence, and monitor users over time. When regulators or courts ask whether a platform took reasonable steps, “We collected less data” is rarely persuasive. For companies, defending themselves against accusations of ne