this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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Age checks could turn internet into an ID checkpoint and would kill anonymity, Proton CEO says (proton.me)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by Deep@mander.xyz to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Online threats to children are real, but the headlong pursuit of age verification that we’re seeing around the world is unacceptable in its approach and far too broad in scope — and we simply can’t afford to get this wrong.

To be clear, parents’ concerns are valid and sincere. Few people would argue that kids should have unfettered access to adult material, to self-harm how-tos, to social media platforms that manipulate them and expose them to abuse.

But it’s the very depth of those worries that is being cynically exploited. Age verification as is currently being proposed in country after country would mean the death of anonymity online.

And we know exactly who stands to gain: The same tech giants who built the privacy nightmare that the internet is today.

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[–] emeralddawn45@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If this becomes widespread, I just won't use any websites that require it. There will always be ways around it or alternatives for people opposed to losing their privacy. There already are at least 2 Internets. There's reddit and Facebook and Twitter and all the corporate news sites, and then there's Lemmy and archive.org and the dark web and dev pages and independent websites and piracy. I find I rarely care about the former anyway. It'll just mean being blocked off from all the corporate slop, which may be a blessing in disguise.

[–] Diurnambule@jlai.lu 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I am readying myselft for the end of internet since years. I guess we are at the end of the dead internet theory where they have to ID humans to be able to differentiate them from bots and be able yo target them more specifically.

[–] BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

Lol, is that why? Advertising dollars.

It's tough for millennials, who saw the potential and the promise of the Internet.

It's important to note the Arab Spring and the One Piece (whatever we'll name it).

Even now the remnants of the forth estate, are literally vlogging news on tube sites and substack.

But yeah, Internet is ever inching forward to becoming TV or radio. Centralized information is power.

I maintain that we lost the Internet when we accepted asynchronous data connection.