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EFF launches Age Verification Hub

(www.eff.org)
347 points iamnothere | 1 comments | 10 Dec 25 20:35 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source

Also: We built a resource hub to fight back against age verification https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/12/age-verification-comin...
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pksebben ◴[11 Dec 25 20:45 UTC] No.46236900[source]▶
This keeps coming up and we keep having the same debates about what Age Verification isn't.

For the folks in the back row:

Age Verification isn't about Kids or Censorship, It's about Surveillance

Age Verification isn't about Kids or Censorship, It's about Surveillance

Age Verification isn't about Kids or Censorship, It's about Surveillance

Without even reaching for my tinfoil hat, the strategy at work here is clear [0 1 2]. If we have to know that you're not a minor, then we also have to know who you are so we can make any techniques to obfuscate that illegal. By turning this from "keep an eye on your kids" to "prove you're not a kid" they've created the conditions to make privacy itself illegal.

VPNs are next. Then PGP. Then anything else that makes it hard for them to know who you are, what you say, and who you say it to.

Please, please don't fall into the trap and start discussing whether or not this is going to be effective to protect kids. It isn't, and that isn't the point.

0 https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/11/lawmakers-want-ban-vpn...

1 https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/vpn-usage...

2 https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2025-09-15/debates/57714...

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knallfrosch ◴[11 Dec 25 21:23 UTC] No.46237349[source]▶
> If we have to know that you're not a minor, then we also have to know who you are

That is untrue

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phyzome ◴[11 Dec 25 21:30 UTC] No.46237429[source]▶
Are you aware of any age verification systems that do not have this property?

(This includes being robust against law enforcement action, legal or otherwise.)

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1. knallfrosch ◴[11 Dec 25 21:55 UTC] No.46237741[source]▶
1) Large social media companies know you better than your friends. That has been known for 10 years and they're way better now: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/science/facebook-knows-yo...

2) Cigarette vending machines accept VISA cards and government IDs and they're offline.

3) A medium-sized social media network required photos (not scans) of GovIDs, where only year of birth and validity date need to visible. The rest could be blacked out physically.

4) You can guess users' age and only request solid proof only for those you are unsure about.

The problem is that we technical users think of a one-size-fits-all technical approach that works, without a single fail, for all global users. That is bound to fail.

It is only a law and you can break it big time or small time. Reddit's approach might proof way too weak, it'll be fined and given a year to improve. Others might leave the market. Others will be too strict and struggle to get users. Others might have weak enforcement and keep a low profile forever. Others will start small, below the radar and explode in popularity and then enforcement will have to improve.

You can also request identity and then delete it. (Yes, some will fail to delete and get hacked.)

Giving Facebook a free pass is stupid. They're selling your age cohort "10-11" within 0.0037ms for 0.$0003 to the highest bidder on their ad platform.