New Wave of Online Safety Legislation to Reverse Online Growth by Years

A new wave of online safety legislation coming into force in the next 18 months is set to impact millions of businesses, and could set back growth by years, an expert claims.

In the interest of keeping users safe online, governments across the globe have introduced four new online safety legislations that all come into force in the next 18 months, which will create an insurmountable task for some sites to continue to generate the revenues they need to grow, or even exist.

The new regulations that will impact millions of online businesses and billions of online users include:

GLOBAL – Mastercard AN5196: Preventing illegal adult content on the Mastercard network, impacting millions of adult sites globally. (Oct 15th 2021)

UK – The Age Appropriate Design Code – A ground-breaking code that creates a better internet for children. This impacts around 300,000 businesses in the UK.

EU – Audiovisual Media Services Directive – Requires providers to implement measures to restrict children’s access to harmful content.

CANADA – BILL S-203 – An Act to restrict young persons’ online access to sexually explicit material.

Despite the potential impact of the new legislation, many businesses are not geared up to fulfil the new requirements and experts are concerned about the scale of the support that will be required. For example, the Mastercard legislation will require businesses to seek verification and approval of potentially billions of pieces of content.

Andy Lulham is Chief Operating Officer at VerifyMyAge – the British start-up turned global leader in online age assurance solutions. He comments on the legal tsunami ahead:

“Since launching in 2019, we have experienced a huge spike in age verification and authentication requirements from global brands down to smaller businesses who know compliance is non-negotiable when growing a business. This wave of new legislation has sent hares racing – creating a sense of insecurity amongst those with content-rich websites, with very little time to make necessary changes.

“We’re expecting a tsunami of hefty fines in the new year, and the regulators will be sure to make an example of any online businesses that haven’t been fast enough to reflect the new measures. We are having conversations with global businesses who fear they will probably need to come to a halt whilst in-house teams make the necessary changes, or to slow things right down.”

Andy comments on Mastercard’s new content control measures, which will have a major impact:

“Our exposure to prominent adult entertainment stakeholders across the globe has taught us that in the short term, regulators lack teeth, i.e the necessary enforcement powers to mandate age verification and safeguard children. And that’s why brands have made it their job to plug this governance shortfall, as Mastercard’s latest move shows.

“Watching brands become the regulators is incredibly interesting – Mastercard is governing by carrot rather than stick. If platforms want to get paid by users, they need to comply – as simple as that. It’s not a publicity stunt either – from October 15th, any adult site wishing to use the Mastercard network will be required to have the documented age and identity verification for all people depicted and those uploading the content.”

VerifyMyAge has been busy preparing for the influx of additional demand, which was activated by companies needing to meet the 2nd September ‘Age Appropriate Design Code’ deadline.

VerifyMyContent is the firm’s latest innovation, which is supporting sites to make necessary changes before the Mastercard rules come into force on 15th October. Watch the explainer video here. Andy comments:

“We’ve seen a 680% increase in sites introducing age verification since 2019, and our efforts to scale up to service an ever-growing demand for compliance services is our main priority. Once implemented, our service is automated and reduces friction for sites to perform effectively. We have been on a major recruitment drive to scale our team to service the ever-growing client-base which will now see a major 18-month spike.”