this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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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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[–] moonburster@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

It's been fun lads. Let's make agreements for where we will touch grass together when this happens. Follow-up events will be decided on location

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

I think these laws are not for we'll just get around it or not use services that require it, for now at least.

[–] Siegfried@lemmy.world 16 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

It bothers me that we know that this bullshit has nothing to do with the kids and is probably being lobbied by the genocide gang and AI companies, even more that it has become obvious that the only value AI has is mass monitoring, but nobody abords the real issue. We are playing their book.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 9 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

99.9% navigate the system and grow up perfectly fine, or fine enough. We shouldn't have to completely surrender our anonymity for the tiny percentage that went wrong.

Before the Internet, some people got weird, and in the Internet era, some people are going to go weird. Age verification isn't going to change that.

This isn't about the kids. We all know it.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 12 points 22 hours ago

"It's for the KIDS, you COMMIE!"

It's time we stop accepting that rationalization as valid.

[–] fodor@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Kids don't have unfettered access if they are supervised, lol. And age gating will fail regardless. So it's a failure followed by another failure, sigh.

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[–] krispyavuz@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago

Shocking news! The sky is blue

[–] Doorbook@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The positive thing about age checks is the technology that will come out to by pass the system.

[–] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 day ago

I'm working on ways it right now. Aliexpress wants me to do a face check for some items. I've been a customer long enough to have been born and become a legal adult as a customer!

They don't want my face for verification. It's an excuse to feed their AI, which is already scary good at voice.

[–] GreenBeanMachine@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

That's exactly what they (billionaires) are trying to achieve. Because they're getting scared of us getting organised and doing more than burning down warehouses.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 points 3 hours ago

its to cut off things like organization, information to keep people ignorant. they only dream of able to turn off internet like iran does to keep people ignorant.

[–] 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 1 hour 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.

[–] blackkn1ght@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 day ago

Could? Will.

[–] ReCursing@feddit.uk 116 points 1 day ago (8 children)

He has a vested interest in saying that, but he's right, and it would be awful

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[–] treesquid@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago

"Could" is a funny way of saying "are obviously intended to". Stop playing around, call it out directly. Points where you must have your ID checked are, in fact, ID checkpoints.

[–] tinfoilhat@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

How long before we get a Meshtastic style, decentralized internet?

[–] pixelapoc@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago

While Meshtastic is great, I believe Reticulum has a more suitable approach for this: https://reticulum.network/

[–] a_gee_dizzle@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 day ago (5 children)

What can I, as a regular guy, do to help make this happen?

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[–] Randelung@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Man, parents not wanting anything to do with their kids' upbringing will believe anything, huh. They'd rather offload any and all responsibilities to automation than spend one minute teaching kids how to protect themselves.

Then again, they probably don't know, either.

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[–] SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world 38 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Anyone think that's not the point?

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"Age Verification" is just them attaching "THINK OF THE CHILDREN" to their push to have every single bit of information about every person on the planet.

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[–] RedGreenBlue@lemmy.zip 41 points 1 day ago (9 children)

Make social media unprofitable instead of this.

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[–] AverageEarthling@feddit.online 60 points 1 day ago (11 children)

I mean, I've got boxes full of physical books and self hosted movies and Tv. At that point, I'll just stop using the internet. I need to go outside more anyway.

[–] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 3 points 1 day ago

My mother in law got me essentially the bible of DIY gardens for the Flemish region. I learned that there are differences just in tool styles an hour drive away from eachother already.

I could read that for a years and still learn things!

[–] zewm@lemmy.world 40 points 1 day ago (13 children)

Finally all my friends that been giving me shit about having a dvd collection can eat shit.

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 39 points 1 day ago (9 children)

Clearly this man is a genius.

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Anyone who could not see that Trump was going to extort business for his own personal gain was clueless to Trump and his cabinet of blackmailers.

Anyone of color giving support to White Nationalists is fucking insane and shows a complete lack of understanding of current US politics.

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[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Maybe Kaczynski had a point by running off to the woods and living in a cabin.

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[–] sturmblast@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Theres a big wide internet beyond apps and social media.

[–] osanna@lemmy.vg 1 points 3 hours ago

I miss stumbleupon :(

it was GREAT for new websites to discover.

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[–] Gonzako@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

Damn, I think my proton vpn is stopping me from commenting on here

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