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#ageverification

37 posts28 participants6 posts today
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@LukefromDC : it won't be that bad (it will be bad, but in a different way).

ANY website may ask a user to confirm they are 18+ (or whatever age).

There will be a huge amount of AitM (Attacker in the Middle) websites where naive people will be lured to (using fake emails, SMS, chat app messages or falsified QR-codes) and asked to confirm their age.

That AitM website will subsequently obtain a "ticket" (session cookie) from a real "relying party" website (with a potentially very different type of content than the victim is told).

Those "tickets" will be sold (or traded for watching ads and/or paying with privacy).

Reliable authentication requires a trustworthy identity verifier (even if identification is restricted to age+).

@drgroftehauge @fabio @SylvieLorxu

"By publishing its guidelines under Article 28 of the Digital Services Act, the European Commission has taken a major step towards social media bans that will undermine privacy, expression, and participation rights for young people that are already enshrined in international human rights law.

EFF recently submitted feedback to the Commission’s consultation on the guidelines, emphasizing a critical point: Online safety for young people must include privacy and security for them and must not come at the expense of freedom of expression and equitable access to digital spaces.

Article 28 requires online platforms to take appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of safety, privacy and security of minors on their services. But the article also prohibits targeting minors with personalized ads, a measure that would seem to require that platforms know that a user is a minor. The DSA acknowledges that there is an inherent tension between ensuring a minor’s privacy and requiring platforms to know the age of every user. The DSA does not resolve this tension. Rather, it states that service providers should not be incentivized to collect the age of their users, and Article 28(3) makes a point of not requiring service providers to collect and process additional data to assess whether a user is underage."

eff.org/deeplinks/2025/07/just

Electronic Frontier Foundation · Just Banning Minors From Social Media Is Not Protecting ThemBy publishing its guidelines under Article 28 of the Digital Services Act, the European Commission has taken a major step towards social media bans that will undermine privacy, expression, and participation rights for young people that are already enshrined in international human rights law. EFF...
#EU#SocialMedia#DSA

The UK gov look like complete digitally illiterate idiots. The disaster of huge VPN uptake as a consequence of ill thought out simplistic age verification policy in the UK is stupid beyond credibility. We ARE led by donkeys. I said a while back that AI policy (in HE, and at national level) is being made by ppl who don't even know what a VPN is to indicate level of naïve ignorance. Now we know just how true that is.

The UK 🇬🇧 has taken a huge step to enforce age verification online by requiring everyone to prove they are over 18 via face scans, ID documents, credit checks, or third‑party authentication. This all starts with pornography sites but could extend across platforms worldwide. This elevates major privacy and surveillance risks, raises questions about anonymity, and could quell access to important content like reproductive health, LGBTQ+ resources, and more.

TL;DR
🆔 ID, selfie, or credit‑based age checks now mandatory
🌍 Age‑verification laws expanding globally
🔒 Raises privacy and surveillance concerns
🧠 May chill free access to sensitive content

wired.com/story/the-age-checke
#AgeVerification #PrivacyRights #DigitalPolicy #FreeSpeech #security #privacy #cloud #infosec #cybersecurity #Freedom

WIRED · The Age-Checked Internet Has ArrivedBy Matt Burgess

The EU’s prototype age verification app is under fire for planning to use Google’s Play Integrity API 🔍

Critics say this could restrict non-Google Android users, harm digital sovereignty, and contradict the EU’s own antitrust stance 🇪🇺

Developers are urging alternatives like Yivi, which work without Google’s ecosystem 🛡️

@EUCommission
@neowin

neowin.net/news/eus-new-age-ve

NeowinEU's new age verification app faces criticism over Google dependenceThe European Union's in-development age verification app has attracted criticism over plans to use a Google API that would harm competition.
#EU#Europe#Privacy

Interesting insight on how age verification measures are working in the UK and the various ways of getting around them. More importantly, these age verification measures are showcasing how people are taking their privacy seriously when facing potential roadblocks and limitations imposed by these laws.

"People are already finding loopholes for these systems. The face scanning systems for Persona and k-ID — the third-party verification software used by Reddit and Discord, respectively — can both be easily tricked using Death Stranding’s photo mode. (Facebook and Instagram use a similar service called Yoti, which so far does not appear to have been fooled the same way.)"

"Meanwhile, some users have been finding ways to avoid undergoing verification entirely, expressing distrust over handing their personal information over to private overseas companies."

theverge.com/analysis/714587/u

An illustration of red X’s behind a symbol representing content that can’t be viewed.
The Verge · The UK is slogging through an online age-gate apocalypseBy Jess Weatherbed

Age verification law in UK leading to people using VPNs (as can be seen when you look at the top downloaded apps charts in the past few days). Who could have seen this coming? Great job, fucktards. #UK #AgeVerification

“In trying to ‘protect’ [children], we risk pushing them toward greater danger.”

Inevitably people will try to bypass age verification checks for UK users.

Young people "may inadvertently expose themselves to greater online harms." They'll be exposed to dodgy sites, malware and creeps in less moderated spaces. How is that safe?

🗣️ ORG's @JamesBaker.

huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/por

HuffPost UK · UK Porn Age Verification Is Here – But What If We’re Sending Teens Somewhere Worse?By Natasha Hinde