Age verification is a Trojan horse for ending online anonymity and Big Tech is lobbying for it
The push for age verification is ramping up worldwide, and while protecting kids online is a real and valid concern, the scope and approach are unacceptable and we simply can’t afford to get this wrong.
For some it sounds like common sense, until you realize that every adult will have to verify their ID to access the internet.
You can't prove a child is underage without proving an adult is of age, and that means passports, facial scans, and government IDs flowing into databases held by companies that have already proven they can't keep data safe (Discord leaked 70K+ users' ID photos last year through a third-party vendor).
Meanwhile, Big Tech companies like Apple are volunteering to handle age checks at the device level, which conveniently gives them even more control over who accesses what. And Meta has been lobbying hard for age verification for years, not because they care about kids, but because it shifts responsibility off their platform.
The EU already tried launching an age-verification app. Hackers found critical flaws within hours.
If age verification does happen, the bare minimum should be: client-side checks only, no stored data, end-to-end encryption, open-source code, and zero linkage between the age check and user identity.
Anything less is building a surveillance system and calling it child safety.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Let us know where you stand on age verification!
Full post: https://proton.me/blog/keep-age-verification-from-killing-anonymity-online
Stay safe,
The Proton Team