Zero Knowledge Proofs Aren’t #AgeVerification Silver Bullets

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/08/zkps-arent-age-verification-silver-bullets

#privacy #ZKP

Canada’s Age Verification Bill Was Always an Unconstitutional Mess

On the heels of the French court ruling, some are wondering is Canada's version is going to share the same fate. Yes.

https://www.freezenet.ca/canadas-age-verification-bill-was-always-an-unconstitutional-mess/

#Censorship #LawAndTechnology #News #Privacy #Security #AgeVerification #BillC34 #Canada #CanadianCharterOfRightsAndFreedoms #court #France

French Court Rules Social Media Age Verification Infringes Privacy, Freedom of Expression

In a rare bit of good news, Frances top court ruled against age verification for it's obvious constitutional violations.

https://www.freezenet.ca/french-court-rules-social-media-age-verification-infringes-privacy-freedom-of-expression/

#Censorship #LawAndTechnology #News #AgeVerification #court #France #ruling #SocialMedia

#France's top court blocks #SocialMediaBan for under-15s

https://www.reuters.com/world/frances-top-court-rules-social-media-ban-curtails-freedom-expression-2026-08-14/

#privacy #AgeVerification

Young people have their say: rethink the UK social media ban.

It makes a bad situation worse. Teens are just being pushed into unregulated spaces.

A ban does nothing to actually tackle the cause of online harms coming from the business model of the platforms themselves.

That’s what we need to fix.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/prime-minister-burnham-uk-government-scotland-keir-starmer-b3031838.html

#socialmediaban #ageverification #bigtech #onlinesafety #ukpolitics #ukpol

Surprising good news from 🇫🇷 !

"France's Constitutional Council strikes down social media ban for under-15s"

🔗 : https://www.lemonde.fr/en/pixels/article/2026/08/14/france-s-constitutional-council-strikes-down-ban-on-social-media-for-under-15s_6756507_13.html

"In its decision, the Constitutional Council raised concerns about the possible impact on privacy from instituting an age-verification system for all users."

Wow! I was not expecting this at all.

#privacy #AgeVerification #France

XBox Rolling Out Age Verification for Australian Gamers

Age verification continues to spread. This time, Australians are going to see it for their XBox gaming.

https://www.freezenet.ca/xbox-rolling-out-age-verification-for-australian-gamers/

#Censorship #News #AgeVerification #Australia #console #gaming #store #surveillance #XBox

Illinois Just Passed a Law That Puts Linux on the Hook for Age Verification

https://linuxstans.com/illinois-hb5511-operating-system-age-verification/

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49249150

#HackerNews #Illinois #Law #Linux #AgeVerification #TechNews

#EU #AgeVerification Project Mandates Hardware-Bound Attestation

https://linuxiac.com/eu-age-verification-project-mandates-hardware-bound-attestation/

#privacy #Europe

U.S. Senate Vote: Four Internet Bills, One Wrong Direction

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/08/senate-vote-tomorrow-four-internet-bills-one-wrong-direction

#privacy #KOSA #SCREENAct #YouthAIPrivacyAct #CHATBOTAct #politics #AgeVerification

#WhatsApp is Testing #AgeVerification

https://www.privacyguides.org/news/2026/08/04/whatsapp-is-testing-age-verification/

#Meta #privacy #India

US Senators Pushing Failed Age Verification Law, the SCREEN Act

The US is looking to be the next country to jump off the age verification cliff through failed age verification laws.

https://www.freezenet.ca/us-senators-pushing-failed-age-verification-law-the-screen-act/

#Censorship #News #AgeVerification #SCREENAct #SocialMedia #US #VPN

The #SCREENAct is a Christian Nationalist Nightmare

https://www.404media.co/what-is-the-screen-act-age-verification-porn/

#privacy #AgeVerification #FreeSpeech

The Senate Should Reject #KOSA's #Privacy Risks

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/08/senate-should-reject-kosas-privacy-risks

#AgeVerification

The #Senate Should Reject KOSA's #Privacy Risks

The Senate Commerce Committee is once again considering legislation that would dramatically expand age verification, and undermine privacy for everyone. Alongside the #SCREENAct , the #CHATBOT Act, and the Youth #AI Privacy Act, the Kids Online Safety Act (#KOSA ) would push companies to collect more information about their users while creating new incentives to restrict lawful speech.
#freespeech #ageverification

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/08/senate-should-reject-kosas-privacy-risks

The SCREEN Act is a #ChristianNationalist Nightmare

On Wednesday morning, Ted Cruz’s Senate #CommerceCommittee will convene on five bills aimed at age verification and “child safety.” The bills each have their own issues when it comes to #privacy , data collection, parental rights, and free speech. But one bill, the partisan #Republican SCREEN Act, is a Christian nationalist nightmare.
#screenact #tedcruz #ageverification #parentalrights #freespeech

https://www.404media.co/what-is-the-screen-act-age-verification-porn/

Turns out #AgeVerification for #SocialMedia isn't really that effective after all!

In #Australia, three months later, teens still either aren't checked, or the verification assumes the users are above 16.

Right now it's almost as if it would be better to leave "social media parenting" up to the actual parents...

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/1/most-australian-teens-still-online-three-months-after-under-16-ban

#NorskTut

Australia’s Age Verification Law Still a Failure, Study Finds

An Australian government study has found that little has changed in the governments failed age verification laws.

https://www.freezenet.ca/australias-age-verification-law-still-a-failure-study-finds/

#Censorship #News #AgeVerification #Australia #fail #research #SocialMedia #study

First, they'll ask for your official IDs to confirm your age and identity.

This will create a large treasure trove
of sensitive data, which will attract criminals, and will inevitably leak from either negligence or malice, sooner than later.

Then, they'll claim your official ID is
unreliable, because it was stolen so many times, and demand you share your biometric data.

They will collect your face scan,
your palm scan, and even your iris scan (no exaggeration, these are all already being collected by some companies for identification). They will claim it's super safe.

This will create a large treasure trove
of sensitive biometric data, which will attract criminals, and will inevitably leak from either negligence or malice, sooner than later.

Then what? Rinse and escalate.

You will have lost control of not just your corporate social media accounts by participating to this, but to any data capable of validating your identity, to your privacy rights, to the protections you could use online to stay safe.

We don't have to wait that it escalates.

We can, and must, push back and say No now. Start to say No now.

#Privacy #Biometrics #DataMinimization #AgeVerification

RE: https://neuromatch.social/@jdp23/116967124444088200

KOSA and bad internet bills are getting voted on by the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday, so I've been thinking more about this ...

If bills like KOSA and the SCREEN Act pass, they're likely to affect every US fedi instance. So how do we mobilize geographically-based instances like pnw.zone, gardenstate.social, sfba.social, jawns.club, hoosier.social, dmv.community, etc to push back?

A couple of ideas I've had so far:

• Influential users can play a big role here, just by posting about it with an action. If there's enough activity on hashtags like #KOSA or #SaveSpeech, they might wind up in trending hashtags to help build awareness.

• Admins could potentially paste an announcement post.

What else?

#KOSA #ageVerification #USpol

Most Australian teens still on #SocialMedia three months after under-16 ban began, study finds

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/most-australian-teens-still-social-media-three-months-after-under-16-ban-began-2026-07-31/

#Australia #SocialMediaBan #AgeVerification #privacy

Amending #AB1709 Doesn’t Fix It: #California’s #SocialMediaBan Still Threatens Free Speech and #Privacy

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/amending-ab-1709-doesnt-fix-it-californias-social-media-ban-still-threatens-free

#SocialMedia #AgeVerification

The #SCREENAct Threatens #Privacy Far Beyond Adult Websites

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/screen-act-threatens-privacy-far-beyond-adult-websites

#nsfw #AgeVerification

For #ageverification to truly be #privacy preserving, it shouldn't only ensure that services can't get any unnecessary data. It should also ensure that the state (including govt departments private companies acting on behalf of the state) can't get any unnecessary data, such as information about which sites you verify with. The latter, privacy towards the state, doesn't seem to be taken into account in the #eudiwallet design, as far as I can tell.

#EUDI #eidas #privacywashing

🚨 The text is up https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/119/s5090/text for S.5090, a federal Digital Age Assurance Act, and it is very not good:

* There is no #OpenSource exemption!

* It requires users to “establish an account with the provider”. (§3(a)(1)(A)(i)) This makes local/offline accounts, as is typical on #Linux, #Windows 10, etc, illegal.

[see thread; there's much more]

This #ageVerification bill is a dramatic escalation in the politicians' war against #privacy and #FOSS. Call your senators!!!

#Google’s “#privacy-preserving” #AgeVerification system is coming to the Play Store

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/07/google-begins-global-rollout-of-age-verification-api-in-google-play/

#Android

#Brazil gives parents #SocialMedia controls for their kids. Should the #US?

https://themarkup.org/privacy/2026/07/28/brazil-gives-parents-social-media-controls-for-their-kids-should-the-u-s

#privacy #SocialMediaBan #AgeVerification

5th Circuit blocks #Texas law requiring websites to filter “harmful” speech

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/5th-circuit-blocks-texas-law-requiring-websites-to-filter-harmful-speech/

#FreeSpeech #privacy #AgeVerification

France plans to require age verification for social media, with access potentially blocked for users under 15 who don't have parental consent.

Supporters say it's about protecting children online. Critics warn that mandatory age verification could impact privacy, anonymity, and data collection.

Read more: https://digitalescapetools.com/2026/07/france-social-media-ban-age-verification-privacy.html

#Privacy #SocialMedia #AgeVerification #France #DigitalRights #OnlinePrivacy #TechNews #DigitalEscapeTools

@EUCommission How can you complain about platforms not being private and secure when you push for #chatcontrol and #ageverification that forces everyone to share absurd amounts of personal info?

Policing platforms and fighting cyberbullying are undoubtedly a better strategy than age verification in keeping kids safe online. Yet, educating parents and providing safe offline spaces for kids to meet are likely even more effective. After all, no regulator or platform can see into a child's head.
#ageverification #childsafety
https://dig.watch/updates/mozilla-privacy-first-online-child-safety

The scariest thing about new #AgeVerification laws being introduced in Europe (France, I was expecting more from you) is to see the positive reactions of my family members, who have fallen hook, line and sinker for the arguments discussed in the media. "It's to protect the children!" No it isn't.

I'm sending this superb article by the @eff to all of them:
🔗: https://www.eff.org/issues/age-verification

Now is the time to #resist and speak up and educate those around us ✊ #privacy

If you have been wondering about the effectiveness of the social media ban of under 15 year olds, this study got you :)

Spoiler: 92%+ of kids age 14-15 in #Australia still use it 🥳

Meanwhile IMO forced verification of users had a much better success rate 😉

Source:
https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w35162/w35162.pdf

#Privacy #ageverification #IDverification #Study #Data #Science #Survey #Tech #SocialMedia #Technology #Internet #Censorship #Authoritarianism #MassSurveillance #Surveillance

Alt...

Screenshot of graphic from this study of Australia's social media ban: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w35162/w35162.pdf Percent of banned 14-15-year olds (b) Compliance rate, April versus June 2026 Usage rate: 64% April, 92% June Implied compliance: 27% April, 6% June Notes: Figure 5 reports self-reported past-7-day use of any banned platform.

Reminder of how dire our digital privacy situation has become...

TikTok can spy on you even if you don’t have an account.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260210-tiktok-is-tracking-you-even-if-you-dont-use-the-app-heres-how-to-stop-it

Collecting personal data just to resell it should be outlawed in my opinion.

But combine this with data brokers, ChatControl’s recent vote, and the global push for age verification through 'trusted private third parties', all while data theft is at an all-time high, and you start wondering if we aren’t attending a clown show with very real consequences.

#Privacy #TikTok #ChatControl #DataBroker #AgeVerification

France Jumps Off Cliff, Passes Age Verification Laws

France has passed the failed age verification laws and set the restriction to 15 years of age and younger.

https://www.freezenet.ca/france-jumps-off-cliff-passes-age-verification-laws/

#Censorship #News #AgeVerification #facepalm #France #legislation #SocialMedia

Australia Considers Targeting VPNs Following Age Verification Failure

With the failure of age verification in Australia, the eSafety regulator is eyeing VPNs as a new target.

https://www.freezenet.ca/australia-considers-targeting-vpns-following-age-verification-failure/

#Censorship #News #Privacy #Security #AgeVerification #Australia #eSafety #VPN

@dbattistella I did it every single year that "Lost in The Supermarket" topped Fanning's Fab Fifty.

#AgeVerification

Time: Australia’s Age Verification a Success Because Vibes

By all metrics, Australia's age verification law was a failure. So, Time said it's a success because it has good vibes.

https://www.freezenet.ca/time-australias-age-verification-a-success-because-vibes/

#Censorship #News #AgeVerification #Australia #journalism #Time

#California Steps Back From Dangerous Expansion of its Age-Gating Law

The California legislature has stepped back from a plan that would have expanded its age-gating law, removing language that could have compounded serious threats to users’ speech, #privacy and #security just to browse the internet. A.B. 1856, authored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, will now move forward through the legislature without its most problematic pieces.
#ab1856 #ageverification

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/california-steps-back-dangerous-expansion-its-age-gating-law

UK Pushes for Baffling Social Media Curfew for Teens

The UK, like others, is experiencing disaster with age verification, so it's now doubling down with a curfew on social media.

https://www.freezenet.ca/uk-pushes-for-baffling-social-media-curfew-for-teens/

#Censorship #News #AgeVerification #SocialMedia #teens #UK

"Hands off our VPNs, privacy groups tell UK ministers"

https://www.theregister.com/networks/2026/07/14/hands-off-our-vpns-privacy-groups-tell-uk-ministers/5271070?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

"Whether the government is persuaded may depend on whether it views VPNs as a niche loophole used by a small minority of teenagers – as its own research suggests – or as the next obstacle to enforcing its online safety agenda."

#AgeVerification #privacy #VPN #VPNs #technology #UK #DigitalID

EU Chief: We “Need” to Embarrass Ourselves Further With Age Verification

Ursula von der Leyen continues to double down on failed age verification laws, vaguely pointing to "predatory algorithms".

https://www.freezenet.ca/eu-chief-we-need-to-embarrass-ourselves-further-with-age-verification/

#Censorship #News #AgeVerification #EU #Europe #SocialMedia

The EU will propose limits on under-16s using Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook after summer. Australia already bans them. The privacy catch: verifying every user's age can mean ID uploads or face scans for everyone, not just kids.

#ageverification #TikTok #EU #indigoprivacy

1/2 🚨 European Commission panel of experts backs indiscriminate age checks 🚨

Today, the chairs of the European Commission's panel of experts on child online safety published their recommendations, backing mandatory EU-wide #AgeVerification to exclude people under 13 from accessing online spaces 🚫

To know who is of the right age, everyone may have to prove their age. That creates barriers for people who cannot—or simply should not have to—go through the age verification process.

Alt...

A light blue background with purple and dark blue pixels. A human hand is holding a phone with a pixelated screen in the centre. STOP signs are popping up around the phone. A window with the text: RESTRICTED your verification was not successful. Another window with eyes and mouth.

The Fediverse doesn't need an age verification system. The youngest person who ever signed up was 27. They left when they realized that the second youngest was in their late 30s.

#Fediverse
#AgeVerification

Australia’s Age Verification Laws Notches First 100% Failure Rate

The studies are piling up and they all keep pointing to the same conclusion. Australia's age verification laws have failed.

https://www.freezenet.ca/australias-age-verification-laws-notches-first-100-failure-rate/

#Censorship #News #AgeVerification #Australia #study

The Supreme Court is letting Texas enforce its App Store Accountability Act. Under-18s need a parent's OK to download any app. To spot minors, though, Apple and Google must age-verify everyone. Like carding every customer at the bookstore door, a judge said.

#SCOTUS #ageverification #indigoprivacy

Supreme Court declines to block Texas age-verification law for app downloads #Tech #apps #AgeVerification

https://apnews.com/article/texas-age-mobile-app-verification-law-supreme-court-362137cccb26fc5f5dfbb71fb2b2f3db

Two More Studies Show that Australia’s Age Verification Laws Have Failed

Research in one analysis show that 7 in 10 teens still have accounts on Facebook. Another shows 60% are still on social media.

https://www.freezenet.ca/two-more-studies-show-that-australias-age-verification-laws-have-failed/

#Censorship #News #AgeVerification #Australia #fail #research #SocialMedia #study

Massachusetts' Senate bill S.3164 tries to protect kids online without the privacy tradeoff. Instead of forcing everyone to upload a government ID to verify their age, it turns off addictive, surveillance-driven features like infinite scroll by default.

#privacy #ageverification #socialmedia #digitalrights #indigoprivacy

I'm so old I remember when bucket squatting meant something visceral.

#infosec #AgeVerification #DiddlySquat

“The thing is, when working on decentralized tech, I always believed it was important because we had serious risks from centralization, surveillance, etc from governments and corporations, potentially co-conspiring. But what I hadn't anticipated is that as things became more centralized, the will to fight for the internet as something in the public interest too would evaporate.

When I have conversations with family members and friends who haven't yet thought much about the age verification and similar bills and their consequences, they've said "well, someone has to hold corporations like Meta" responsible. To which I say, "but what about all the smaller, non-corporate parts of the internet?" To which, many people are surprised, because they've simply forgotten about those things.

When the internet and computing becomes five corporations to most people, they begin to treat it as the concerns of reigning in five corporations.“

https://dustycloud.org/blog/what-happened-to-the-fight-for-the-internet/

#AgeVerification #Surveillance #OpenWeb #Decentralization #DigitalRights #Oligopolies #Fediverse #Privacy

Faced With Age Verification Failure, Australia Doubles Fines for Social Media

Age verification was always an impossible to comply with law, but Australia is doubling fines on social media for failing to do the impossible.

https://www.freezenet.ca/faced-with-age-verification-failure-australia-doubles-fines-for-social-media/

#Censorship #News #AgeVerification #Australia #fine #legislation #SocialMedia

Age verification is just a precursor to automated attribution of speech

https://nonogra.ph/age-verification-is-just-a-precursor-to-attribution-of-speech-06-29-2026

#HackerNews #ageverification #automation #speechattribution #privacytech

Study Confirms that Australia’s Age Verification Law Was a Failure

More than 85% of Australian teens that are supposedly "banned" from social media are still using it according to the BMJ.

https://www.freezenet.ca/study-confirms-that-australias-age-verification-law-was-a-failure/

#Censorship #News #AgeVerification #Australia #BritishMedicalJournal #science #SocialMedia #study

“The problem is, there's no such thing as "age verification" for the internet. What we call "age verification" is actually mass surveillance, so invasive and pervasive that it makes the ad-tech industry's commercial surveillance look like some kind of cypherpunk darknet pirate utopia:
(…)
"Age verification" means that everyone who does anything online will have to submit to fine-grained tracking and recording of all their online activities. This nightmare is the surveillance advertising industry's fondest dream, a world where it's literally illegal to avoid their tracking, all in the name of saving kids…from them!

So it's not just a weird alliance of anti-Big Tech crusaders and the conspiratorial right that's pushing for age verification – they are unwitting allies of the very tech industry they think they're fighting. Those tech industry insiders are fully aware that an "age verification" mandate is really a way for the government to teach every child how to use a VPN. They're also fully aware that the next move is to ban VPNs:“

https://pluralistic.net/2026/06/23/destroy-the-village/

#AgeVerification #Surveillance #Privacy #VPNs #DigitalRights

"Anthropic may ask Claude users to verify their age and identity by uploading their government-issued documents, according to a new version of the company’s privacy policy.

The AI giant says the move was to allow users to appeal having their account flagged for potentially fraudulent activity rather than outright banning them, but comes at a time when Anthropic seeks to placate the Trump administration amid an ongoing standoff over who gets access to the company’s AI tools.

According to a new section in its latest privacy policy published earlier in June and set to take effect on July 8, Anthropic says it will ask for a user to prove their age or identity “in certain circumstances,” without providing specific examples.

While Anthropic has long required users to be over 18 to use Claude, the company earlier this year introduced age-verification checks to comply with various states and countries that require them. Identity checks were also announced but weren’t reflected in the company’s privacy policy until more recently."

https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/22/anthropic-says-claude-may-want-to-see-your-id/

#Anthropic #Claude #AgeVerification #Privacy #DataProtection

UK’s Failed Age Verification Law is Becoming A Political Scandal

The UK's failed age verification law is becoming the latest sign of political failure with the UK prime minister.

https://www.freezenet.ca/uks-failed-age-verification-law-is-becoming-a-political-scandal/

#Censorship #News #AgeVerification #KierStarmer #politics #UK #VPN

https://www.xda-developers.com/discord-begins-testing-age-verification-with-google-wallet-and-credit-cards-but-face-scans-are-still-on-the-table/

Discord will begin testing new forms of Age verification, face scans will still be an option, but now they will trial accepting Google Wallet & credit Card Checks. Face scans will now occur On-Device with a new vendor named "Incode"

#Discord #AgeID #AgeVerification #Privacy #Security