Spotify users have been left furious as the Online Safety Act puts their accounts at risk of being deleted if they fail to verify their age.
The legislation, which came into effect on July 25, now requires social media platforms and search engines to put measures in place to prevent children from accessing harmful content online.
Since last Friday, websites face being fined up to £18million if they do not check users are aged over 18 before letting them access potentially ‘harmful’ material such as pornography or material that encourages suicide.
However, the Bill has received backlash from both advocacy groups, politicians, and members of the public, with Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, accusing the Government of ‘hiding behind children’ while attacking free speech.
His response came after Technology Secretary Peter Kyle claimed Farage was on the side of ‘people like Jimmy Savile‘, after his party pledged to scrap the Act.
Now, those using Spotify have hit out after it emerged the app will now require age verification to comply with the law, with some calling for others to stop using the platform and to ‘let them go bankrupt’.
One user questioned: ‘How old do you have to be to listen to music?’, while another declared: ‘I think I’m deleting payments to any company that ever sends me something like this.’
Spotify users have hit out after it emerged the app will now require age verification, with some calling for others to stop using the platform and to ‘let them go bankrupt’ (stock image)
Nearly half a million people have signed a petition against the Online Safety Act
On its website the music app announced in partnership with Yoti, a digital identity company, age verification will be carried out via facial recognition or the use of ID documents.
Those who chose not to disclose their age via this process will have their accounts deactivated, with the option of reinstating their account within 90 days by completing the process via a link sent to their email.
Previously campaign group, Big Brother Watch, also warned of the ‘catastrophic effect on free speech online’ the Ofcom legislation could have with ‘intrusive new age checks to access a range of websites’.
Xbox have also followed suit, announcing they too will be investing in technologies and tools to ensure players have age-appropriate experiences on their platform, while sending notifications to UK users to verify their age.
They have said, via a statement on their website, at the beginning of next year age verification will be required to have full access to the console’s social features, such as voice or text communication and game invites.
Yesterday YouTube also announced it would start using AI to estimate users ages in the US, so viewers would see age-appropriate content.
It comes shortly after the UK introduced the Online Safety Bill and Australia declared it would ban under 16s from using the platform.
The introduction of the new feature in its native country suggests YouTube plans on implementing the technology in both Australia and the UK in line with new regulations.
Nigel Farage has accused the Government of ‘hiding behind children while attacking free speech’ as he continued a bitter row with Labour over online safety laws
The Reform UK leader reacted with fury on Tuesday after Technology Secretary Peter Kyle claimed he was on the side of ‘people like Jimmy Savile’
Mr Farage has demanded an apology from Mr Kyle, describing his remarks about vile sex predator Savile as ‘so absolutely disgusting that it’s almost beyond belief’
In a blog post titled ‘Extending our built-in protections to more teens on YouTube’, James Beser, director of product management for YouTube Youth wrote: ‘Over the next few weeks, we’ll begin to roll out machine learning to a small set of users in the US to estimate their age, so that teens are treated as teens and adults as adults.’
Reacting to the announcement on Reddit, one user wrote: ‘Oh, lovely. Just after every website on the face of the internet has started forcing British users to dox themselves to access anything.
A second added: ‘Terrible, horrible idea. This is going to throw false positives left and right,’ while another questioned: ‘Surely kids can just create a new account and watch a bunch of boomer slop to get around this?’
Last year, the Australian previous communications minister promised YouTube would be exempt from the social media ban, however the government announced it would be included on Monday.
Google previously threatened to sue to overturn the ban on under 16s using social media in Australia, which will come into effect in December, according to The Guardian.
Elsewhere, nearly half a million Brits have signed a petition demanding the end of stringent new online safety measures which critics say are strangling free speech.
Hundreds of thousands have signed a petition calling for the act to be repealed, with critics claiming that the controls brought in by the Act are overreaching, restricting Brits from expressing themselves.
Alex Baynham, who started the Parliamentary petition that has been signed over 449,384 times, said the scope of the Act is ‘far broader and restrictive than is necessary in a free society’.
Xbox have announced they will be following suit, as they confirm users have until 2026 to verify their age in order to use the console’s social features (stock image)
Yesterday YouTube also announced it would start using AI to estimate users ages in the US, so viewers would see age-appropriate content
He said: ‘We think that Parliament should repeal the act and work towards producing proportionate legislation rather than risking clamping down on civil society talking about trains, football, video games or even hamsters because it can’t deal with individual bad faith actors.’
Critics have also suggested that age verification is blocking off parts of the internet that should not fall into the same vein – including videos of political protests at asylum seeker hotels.
These cannot be watched on platforms such as X without a user surrendering personal information in order to prove their age, such as credit card information, a personal ID, or even a facial scan – which users are already circumventing.
On X, users complained they were unable to view clips of police detaining activists in the UK, with messages on-screen saying it was ‘due to local laws’ until the site could estimate a user’s age.
X does not currently have any verification tools in place allowing users to confirm their age – effectively blocking them from seeing the videos indefinitely unless the website has verified their age itself through its Premium subscription.
The site even barred users from watching a powerful speech about grooming gangs which Conservative MP Katie Lam made to Parliament earlier this year.
The Government, responding to the petition, says it has no plans to repeal the Act.
In a statement, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said that proportional measures were a ‘core principle’ of the Online Safety Act.
‘The Government has no plans to repeal the Online Safety Act, and is working closely with Ofcom to implement the Act as quickly and effectively as possible to enable UK users to benefit from its protections,’ it added.
