David Brancaccio

A landmark trial against Meta and YouTube is underway as the companies face evidence their platforms hurt children by damaging their mental health.

This comes as lawmakers around the world are pushing new safety laws that could require users to verify their age by uploading maybe a government ID or submitting to a facial scan.

But some digital rights advocates warn that done wrong, systems to make the online world safer for children could put sensitive private data in the wrong hands.

We're joined now by Kian Vestenson.

He's a senior researcher at Freedom House, a nonprofit focused on democracy and human rights.

Welcome.

Thanks for having me, David.

Age verification for what we get access to online.

I mean, to keep younger people away from harmful or age-inappropriate content.

You're not against that in itself.

It's happened to me before.

There was somebody tampering with one of my online accounts, and I think it was MetaFacebook asked me to take a picture of myself holding up my driver's license.

That should have made me more nervous at the time.

Because there are good ways and bad ways to do this.

There are ways that are more vulnerable, but there are ways you're persuaded in this world of hackers where there's a decent chance that your data will be safeguarded.

Keon Vestenson is senior researcher at Freedom House.

That's a nonprofit that focuses on democracy and human rights.

Thank you for this briefing.

Thanks for having me.

And in Los Angeles, I'm David Brancaccio.