Age-checking is just a backdoor to force everyone on the internet to identify themselves. Nobody cares about the kids, they care about purging the internet of political dissent and opposition.
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2025
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I am 420 years old.
That's a respectable age! Personally I'm 69 years old.
See, there are a few ways this could go.
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Age verification is as secure and private as promised, and it's left at that. I like to call this "the miracle", and we all know those don't happen.
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Age verification is as secure and private as promised, but a government asks for "access to data to prevent crime" - things degenerate from there. This is the "systemic failure" scenario.
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Age verification is as secure and private as promised, but new scams evolve around it to make it dangerous. This would be the "criminal element" scenario.
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Age verification is not as secure and private as promised, and a leak occurs destroying lives and careers. This is the "system failure" scenario.
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Age verification is as secure and private as promised, but a few companies start scraping and selling data, leading to widespread harms. This is the "unethical merchant" scenario, and the most likely outcome.
All in all, there is only one "ok" scenario, and a lot of horrific ones. The math says we're entirely boned ^_^
I feel like people are downplaying how dangerous even the possibility of #2 is. A lot of nations are already targeting the LGBTQ community on a regular basis and this would massively assist to streamline persecution of "certain" citizens as well as the rapid spread of religious dogma. Both the U.S. and Australia are current testing grounds for these outcomes.
In theory, it isn't hard to make it work, give everybody born on the same day a specific UUID and use that to authenticate with a database if it is true or false. Store the ID somewhere where the person has access to (ID/Passport/Digital passport etc) and it should be enough. Get IT persons and accountants to regularly audit it for security and if they keep logs/don't have UUID's per person etc.
But that's not how it seems to work for the UK at this time
Or all of the above while still not being "as secure and private as promised".
Nothing is ever as secure and private as promised.
4, as it's already happening. It's just to be seen if people will have their lives ruined
We would need politicians to be the victims. Then these fascist laws will suddenly be cancelled.
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these laws are all about control and tracking what you do online. they make the internet MORE dangerous, because (as with everything the government restricts or bans) there will be a black market, which is always more dangerous and exposes people to more things than they were looking for in the first place. you think dark web providers are gonna make you upload your id to stay compliant? no, they’re gonna continue anonymously operating through TOR and serve up some very questionably sourced content to those teens that are searching “boobs” and can no longer access pornhub
Fuck it, let's get back to something like the way it was.
Anonymous, amateur, just slightly hard to access to keep the mouth breathers out.
being able to use obscure internet forums does not preclude you from being a mouth breather
Well now that sounds a little like the fediverse itself!
I really, really dont want to search for porn on the dark net...
That’s what this is going to become. And that’s another point to this. They can just go after people using the dark net claim it was for kiddie porn even if it wasn't. the masses will just believe them.
There's like a gazillion porn sites on the clearnet though, I can't imagine them being able to track then all
I am aware of many, I am just saying looking at the dark web is not a good idea because... well... OK we're all adults here. That's where all the CP is and I have no interest in seeing that shit.
That’s a kinda not true tho. There is a fuck ton of cp on the clear web. The only thing I can say, is that Twitter used to have a lot of spam posts with links to cp.
There is so much of it on the internet in general that you can’t really do much about it. On top of the fact it is still all over torrent websites as well.
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Can someone tell me if people are actually doing this or just using VPNs? Or what other routes are there around this?
On the internet everyone will know you're a dog.
Mrreow? 😾
Sucks, because it's going global and we can't seem to stop it. I'm fine with laws to age gate in terms of a button you click. If some kid is willing to say they're 15... well, let's make sure people are treating them as a 15 year old. But... making everyone deal with real verification is at best going to further entrench big business, and at worst, destroy the internet we love. And it raises the question: are trans teenagers talking to each other now creating adult content because the UK hates trans people?
For porn and games etc. that should be enough yes, but for online gambling, opening stock market accounts etc we do need actual verification, but there are tons of methods of doing it so that the site only gets a true or false (18 or above) and the government gets obfuscated URL's so that the government doesn't know what you visited.
Well time to sell thumbdrives to teenagers filled with "tutorials.mp4" and "online class.mp4" lol.
Just give em live distros with tor installed.
This isn't about being "age-checked". It's about IDing everyone on the internet and tracking where they go and what they do.
The world we live in is far far worse than anything from 1984.
Exactly this.
Governments have a rock hard boner for detailed face scans of every person.
I think that's the tech side windfall, the age checking is entirely to put road blocks infront of boobies. They it will force places to just not service those regions because of the hurdles of convincing enough people to give their ID, some will, and more over time.
And it now gives I people a reason to actually create fake IDs or just more identity theft uses. Raise the value of obtaining people's ID is the windfall for the data rapers
I will not be participating. I'll get around any barriers they put in place.
And if I can't, I'll just stop using the internet for anything I don't absolutely have to.
I don't really need my smartphone. A laptop will do.
You don't use the internet on a laptop?
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