I seem to remember an instance somewhere had a quite great idea, they would have their admin team request a bottle of wine or similar plus a picture of the payment voucher as a form of adult identification. Their argument was that if someone can legally buy drinks then they are legally adult, and thus they could verify with that without ever requiring any sort of PII.
this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2026
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This is similar to what we've done on aussie.zone. Go to a bar, order the drink, get receipt, write username, take photo. One of the admins spent a bunch of time, and a bot to sort through the photos.
Apparently people were quite creative, i really want there to be a record of that creativity somewhere in the future, sounds so fun.
Maybe they could donate the record of that little episode to some alternative social media museum in a couple decades. I think theres something about the demands of age verification and the creative ways of respecting online privacy that event produced that has some historical value.
A receipt from alcohol purchase seems equally as valid as a govt ID. One could falsify either by just stealing someone else's.
And until these whackadoo politicians decide they're going to provide the tools or other guidance on exactly how to verify someone's age, it seems appropriate.
American in shambles having to wait another 3 years to go online
Yep. As a Fediverse admin that's basically it. Until there are legal or financial consequences there will be no ID verification. If I am forced.... Well my instance will be disabled. Simple as that unfortunately.
I'm not going to show you my ID, but I can hold an extensive conversation with you about Gaia Online, which should prove my age quite well.
Let us speak now of... The Mighty Orbots.
I cannot confirm or deny in writing that this is the approach on quokk.au.
Fortunately such laws do not seem forthcoming in my country, and I have yet to see how not following the laws of other countries will be able to meaningfully affect us.
Based and good