Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Transcription company Rev updated its Terms of Service agreement today following reports of workers unhappy with low pay and exposure to graphic files without warning. Most of the changes appear to be efforts to solidify its workers’ classification as independent contractors, but there is one notable change: the company now requires transcribers to be at least 18, or older in some states.
Prior to today’s update, Rev’s website explicitly stated it had “no age requirement” for working on transcriptions. US employment laws largely don’t apply to the type of freelance labor used by Rev, “so there may be people under 16 working over 40 hours a week on Rev and that’s not illegal,” Veena Dubal, associate professor of law at the University of…