Our access to the internet is a locked garden, with age assurance as both gatekeeper and gardener. A colleague observed during a policy workshop: "Not everything behind a gate is forbidden; sometimes it is protected." That paradox guides our inquiry into how age assurance shapes access online. We navigate patchworks of biometric scans, digital IDs, […]

I remember the night we hesitated before clicking “confirm.” We were midway through creating profiles on a new adult media platform, drawn by its slick design and promised community, yet pausing as the privacy settings glared back with technical jargon and vague defaults. That moment became our wake-up call: convenience without clarity felt like a […]