The first online age verification system fails: "The Spanish app won't work either."

In several European countries, governments are developing age verification systems for accessing adult content on the internet, digital passports that will be required to access adult content. In Spain, the government introduced the so-called Beta Digital Wallet (but known online as the Pajaporte), an application that allows access to adult content sites 30 times every 30 days, although it can be renewed if more visits are needed.

José Luis Escrivá, then Minister of Digital Transformation, even stated that the tool cannot be hacked and that the government will not know under any circumstances who uses it to access adult content platforms. However, cybersecurity experts consulted by ABC already made it clear that the system had flaws , a criticism that is gaining momentum now that the British model, similar in its approach, has proven ineffective.

"They intend for its use to be anonymous, but it's clearly not going to be," explains Antonio Fernandes, a cybersecurity expert with the Civil Guard. "As soon as we contact their server, they identify us using the public key. If the government wants, they'll be able to know who uses the app." He adds: "It's the same as in the United Kingdom: they claim to delete biometric data after verification, but there's no way to verify this. If there's a leak, your face could end up on the black market for sensitive data."

As seen in the United Kingdom, these systems require users to reveal their faces and personal information, or require operators and banks to certify to a pornographic website that the user is of legal age. This, according to experts, entails a high cost in terms of privacy. In Spain, at least, data is managed by the government and not by private companies, as is the case in the British model. Even so, it remains a matter of concern for experts.

Furthermore, the system has significant limitations: it will only apply to adult content websites registered in Spain, which aren't exactly the most visited. "The passport isn't going to work. It's leaking everywhere," says Fernandes.

And that's not the only stumbling block. "We're running into the same old problem: minors seem to be one step ahead. If they can use a VPN—as is already happening in the UK—they'll use their father's ID or find any other method to circumvent the system," warns Javier Sanz, also a cybersecurity expert.

Another thing Escrivá pointed out is that adults should make a "tiny effort," along with minors, to avoid frantically accessing pornographic content. That tiny effort has translated, at least in the British system, into a censorship tool that prohibits browsing certain forums—Reddit and Discord, to name a few—accessing pages that may be categorized as "sensitive content," or even listening to certain songs on Spotify. "They've sold it as a measure to protect minors, but if you look beyond the headline, what you find is the normalization of digital control under the guise of the common good. Whether it's called the Online Safety Act or the Passport Act, it seems this is no longer about protecting children, but about creating a new social standard where your face, your ID, and your body are the password to exist in the digital world," says Sanz.