“Age verification” could force transgender people to come out to use the Internet

In 2026, photo ID isn’t just paper, it basically gives you permission to exist in society. Last month, the Kansas Legislature definitively passed a law Revoking driver’s licenses and IDs for transgender people overnight, requiring them to obtain new ID cards with incorrect gender markers. Now, with a slew of online “age verification” laws requiring online platforms to perform digital identity checks, tech policy experts warn that the inherent dangers are expanding to the internet, where biased automated systems threaten to expose trans people and keep them off websites, public services and apps.

As of March 2026, More than half of the US states They passed “age verification” and “digital ID” laws. These verification systems (sometimes called “age identification”) add a new dimension to problems that trans people have been dealing with for decades.

“This is another step in requiring people to identify themselves everywhere, in physical spaces and online, as their sex assigned at birth,” said Diya Kayali, an independent consultant on technology and human rights. Edge.

As many have pointed out, having an identity that does not match your appearance or reality is not a matter of pronouns or “verification,” but One of the physical consequences: Prevents transgender people from moving freely around the world without risking ongoing harassment, violence, and discrimination. Trans equality advocates take note Evidence of transit identity documents “Incorrect identification exposes people to a range of negative consequences, from denial of employment, housing, and public benefits to harassment and physical violence.”

In January 2025, the administration issued a broad anti-transgender executive order, claiming that the federal government would only recognize a person’s “established biological classification as male or female,” in defiance of the Transgender Prevention Act. Overwhelming consensus of medical scienceWhich indicates that gender is neither fixed nor purely biological. In November 2025, the Supreme Court overturned an injunction that had temporarily prevented the Trump administration from doing so. Prevent gender changes in US passports. Although the executive order was not legally binding, the Supreme Court and Kansas Department of Revenue are following the instructions to the letter — and more federal and state agencies are likely to follow suit.

Automated online identity verification systems add new potential risks of having a mismatched ID. Research shows The design of online identity verification virtually ensures that transgender people – and People of color – They disproportionately face problems.

Digital identity and age verification services generally fall into two categories. Systems that government agencies typically use to verify identity (such as ID.me, which is used in some states to verify benefits such as SNAP) compare an uploaded photo of a person’s ID with information stored in a government database. Others impose biometric scans and AI “facial age estimation,” an unproven computer vision technology that claims the ability to determine age by analyzing facial features. This technology is based on facial recognition, and is currently used by platforms such as Meta, OnlyFansAnd Roblox is where it’s going Teenagers outgrow it And it is in general Huge disaster.

“Both approaches have problems and disproportionate failure rates for trans people,” said Os Keyes, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Massachusetts who researches algorithmic bias against trans people. the edge. Technical experts like Keyes have criticized these systems as inherently biased against transgender people, whose identities do not always fit neatly into government boxes, and whose facial features often change dramatically as a result of hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

“These systems are specifically designed to look for inconsistencies, and they will find them,” Kayali said. “If you’re a woman and someone on the street says, ‘That’s a woman,’ but that’s not what your ID says, that’s a contradiction.” The danger of these contradictions extends not only to transgender people, but also to… Anyone else for whom The appearance does not match Normative gender expectations.

“A lot of age estimation systems rely on a combination of anthropological sex markers and skin texture. This means they fail and provide inaccurate results when faced with people whose signs and skin texture don’t match,” Keyes explains. For example, one of the most prominent measurement algorithms for determining gender is the eyebrow edge. “Let’s say you have a trans man receiving HRT and a trans woman receiving HRT, the first with low brow brows and rough skin, and the second with high brow brows and smoother skin,” Keyes explains. “The age of the former is likely overestimated, while the latter is underestimated.”

Making matters even more bizarre is the fact that many of these systems are black boxes, lacking even a basic remediation method where automated decisions can be appealed – mostly because age verification laws don’t specifically require it. Many laws, incl Kansasincludes language that only requires platforms to conduct age verification through a “commercially available database” or “any other commercially reasonable method” — not to mention the transparency or accuracy of the systems.

Kendra Albert, a technology attorney and partner at Albert Sellars, LLP, says the bills’ open language allows companies to avoid legal liability as long as they implement… Kind of age verification solution, regardless of its effectiveness or whether it has a way to appeal algorithmic decisions.

“In many cases, it doesn’t mean you have to do it, it just means you could be liable if you don’t,” Albert said. “This makes it difficult to hold anyone accountable for decisions to implement these tools, which will have negative impacts on certain groups of people.”

This leaves many platforms seeking to remove legal liability by relying on third-party age verification vendors like Yoti and k-ID — many of which, Albert points out, typically disclaim responsibility for algorithmic decision-making as part of their terms of service. Meanwhile, smaller platforms that cannot afford these vendors will either implement their own verification models (which also means they become responsible for securely storing highly sensitive user data), or will simply shut down to avoid legal risks.

Using third-party vendors also means that companies may or may not securely store private data, or sell user information to other companies or the government. Last month, Discord, a platform popular among LGBTQ+ gamers, ended its partnership with Persona, the identity verification company backed by Peter Thiel, after… Detect intruders The system would send the private data it collected to federal agencies and compare photos and biometric data with government watch lists. The Trump administration has shown that it has no qualms about using such lists to label and target activists and anyone it considers an enemy. last year, Trump signed NSPM-7, an executive order Which describes a wide range of political views as “domestic terrorism” that should be targeted by law enforcement — specifically including “extremist gender ideology,” the administration’s shorthand for anything that acknowledges the reality of the existence of transgender people.

Needless to say, using platforms that require you to provide your identity and biometric data to a third-party company may not be an attractive option for many transgender people, who already face disproportionate risks. doxxing and Targeted violence. Last year, there was news about this Texas was preparing a list of transgender people From the names of those who have requested to change the gender marker on their state ID card.

Speaking of Kansas, Alpert said that “in many of these circumstances, (the government’s) power comes from the ability to use that information as a weapon against individuals.”

Then there are the types of content restricted by digital identity checks. While the stated goal of most of these laws is to prevent minors from accessing pornographic material, Advocates warned against this Definitions of “harmful to children” content are flexible enough to include all types of supposedly “harmful” material, from online LGBTQ+ communities to information about birth control. For example, the controversial Children’s Online Safety Act (KOSA) proposed an online censorship regime under a “duty of care” that would require platforms Avoid viewing content “Harms minors,” and identifies the Trump-appointed Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as the entity that will determine what types of materials meet that description. (A companion bill called Internet and digital safety law for childrenalso advanced in the House, although it notably removed language describing the duty of care.)

“I think it’s fair to say that if you look at the history of obscenity in the United States and what is considered explicit material, things that contain queer and transsexual material are more likely to be considered sexually explicit even though they’re not,” Albert said. “You may be in a situation where sites with more content about LGBT people are more likely to face repercussions for not implementing age-appropriate rating or being flagged as explicit.”

For trans people, a lot of them Discover community and acceptance for the first time onlineThis is a big shift. Combined, anti-trans identity and age-restriction laws will block access and destroy invaluable resources—leaving few alternatives.

“If you can’t afford a VPN, you’ll use a free VPN that steals your data, or you won’t be able to access that site at all,” Kayali said.

Faced with burdensome regulations that weren’t designed with them in mind, experts worry that LGBTQ+ site operators and the many trans people trying to access age-related websites may decide it’s not worth the risk.