The price of ChatGPT’s erotic chat? $20/month and your identity

Malwarebytes reports that ChatGPT will soon offer erotica—but only for verified adults, a move that could require uploading government identification to a company already tracking your searches and conversations. The piece notes that the price of access is said to be $20 per month, with verification expanding beyond a simple age gate to an online identity checkpoint.

It highlights a broader privacy concern by pointing to breaches such as the AU10TIX incident that exposed driver’s licenses and other data for platforms including Uber, X and TikTok, and it cites 70,000 government-issued IDs being affected. The article also mentions that in the UK, age-gate rules were introduced under the Online Safety Act, and that twenty-four US states have passed similar laws.

It argues that each login could create a new data point linking a person’s real identity to their online activity, describing online verification as a surveillance mechanism rather than a true safety feature, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Jason Kelley.