Digital Identity Verification
Your daughter could get groomed on Roblox. A new lawsuit in California says that's exactly what happened. A man pretended he was a teenage boy. He sexually exploited a 15-year-old girl. The apps checked ages, but they never caught him. Now apps want her to prove how old she is. By the end, you'll know how to protect her.
A school in the UK found 150 fake images of its students. Someone made them from real class photos.
AboutLawsuits.com reported on the case this September. The lawsuit names both Roblox and Snapchat. It says both companies built apps that put kids at risk.
In 2022, France tested the ways apps check a person's age. France found none that was safe, private and reliable.
Some apps just believe whatever age she types in. Other apps keep a copy of her name and her birthday. Can an app check her age without doing either?
Let's look at what these apps keep about her.
In February 2026, Discord started checking its users' ages. Lawsuits said kids groomed on Discord first met their groomers on Roblox. This September, the girl's guardian sued.
Researchers at Beldex said it plainly. If she shares her ID, someone could misuse it.
The website keeps her legal name. It keeps her exact birthday in that same file. Hackers, buyers and courts can all get to that file.
Europe has a rule called eIDAS, and it sets a deadline in 2026. Most websites still copy the whole ID.
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To prove her age, she has to let them copy her ID. They can keep that copy for years.
When a site checks her documents, she hands over 3 things. She gives them her name, her birthday and her ID photo. With a yes-or-no proof, she hands over just one word. That word is just yes or no.
Researchers at Beldex put 3 kinds of math together. A site can check her age without ever seeing it. Nobody can fake the answer she sends.
A site can even ask if she's under 65. She can answer that with the same proof.
She can never change her birthday. Once her ID leaks, it stays out there forever.
Both companies told parents their apps were safe. The lawsuit says both companies knew that wasn't true. Parents believed them, and he got in.
A site only needs to know yes or no. If they take anything more, they're keeping a copy of her. Any extra detail they keep could leak someday. Her birthday was never theirs to keep.
Don't ever let an app keep a copy of her ID. If an app asks for more, say no.
Ask her which apps know her real birthday. Delete any account that kept a photo of her ID. Tell her people online can lie about their age.
Her birthday stays hidden because of the math. Only lawmakers can stop sites from tracking her.
She keeps her ID in her phone's wallet. A website asks her if she's over 18. Her phone only tells the site yes or no. The site can't figure out her birthday from that.
CaraComp wrote a piece that goes deeper on this. That page compares both kinds of age checks.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation adds a warning. Sites can still ask her again and again. They can tie every answer back to her.
Keep her birthday off every public profile. Save any chat where a stranger asks how old she is. Take those saved chats to the police.
Meta was ordered to pay $375 million. That was over child abuse material online. Kids were already hurt before Meta was ordered to pay.
The apps checked her age, but that never kept her safe. Now you protect her by saying no.
Tonight, write down all her apps on one page. Circle every app that saw her ID. Then close those accounts before bed.
Her ID could leak any day now. You can finish this before you go to sleep tonight.
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