this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2026
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I'm not entirely sure how that's panning out in Aus (a quick search suggests it's a flop, but the sources aren't great). I think the general consensus is that it's not as enforceable as they hoped.
We are moving towards an era of a more locked down web in the UK. The main flag here is "robust age verification" - i.e. we're moving from "you must provide ID to view adult material on social media" to "you must provide ID to use social media".
One can quickly see "your id must be retained and linked to your account to reduce crime" and "any officer of the law may view this ID to better support crime reduction" slipping in over the next 20 years or so.
Overall, this feels like another Trojan horse to move towards a China-style de-anonymised web. Bad move all around really.
Next 20 years? Next year pal. Not just the police either. Just because they don't tell you about it doesn't mean it won't happen sooner. You could organize to try and stop it, just a thought.
And then from there to
you must provide ID to use your deviceand eventuallyyou can only run (state-approved OS) on your device, assuming thin clients tied to rented servers, which would be then tied to your ID, don't take over and kill off personal computing first.I'm in Australia and it's shit for everyone. The whole thing was basically conceived by SportsBet so they could advertise on social media with impunity.
My kids are on more social media platforms than I am. So are all their friends. It hasn't slowed anything in that regard.
I can say, none of the shady bootleg porn sites have implemented blocking. So there's always that.
I've survived so far without doing a face scan or ID check. Most of my social media accounts are over 16 years old anyway.
Oh, there's pretty solid data about Australia. A large percent of kids are still using social media because the ones who no longer use it are the ones whose parents won't let them use it, which is of course the same group as the ones whose parents always had that power. But we have heard from some vulnerable minority kids who now no longer get access to the support that they used to have. And that's really f***** up.
those kids socialising other ways. social media isnt socializing anyway
You're right, and it's failure will be the excuse to deprive us all of more of our privacy and autonomy.
you mean we have privacy now? you know these social media companies already gave info on you even if you dont sign up.
its good if social media companies cant get kids into doomscrolling
If only I could be this naive. First of all this isn't going to do much to prevent kids from getting online unless the measures to prevent it become absolutely oppressive. And secondly the bare minimum check requires you to give even me information to the social media companies. And I guarantee they won't be held accountable if kids find a way to bypass whatever measures get put in place. And of course adults are just as addicted to it as kids but I guess they don't matter.
If the goal was to reduce the amount of people addicted to social media the solution would be to regulate how social media functions not regulate access to social media. What is being suggested is stupid. You can't ban things on the internet.
you cant ban things but somehow you can regulate? lol
They don't have a copy of my passport and a video of me holding it. They also don't have a 3D scan of my face, which is what all these age verification companies want from you. They literally use AI while you are filming yourself to 3D scan your face for the Palantir database.
dont use social media then. the less that use it the better
If I can still access your profile an hour from now and it's not deleted, you're full of shit.
It’s not about that though is it? There’s a world of difference in SM companies knowing what I like to look at (Tools and steam engines mostly) and them having access to my actual address, my actual date of birth, my actual current face…
You have the means, ways and most importantly, it is still legal to obtain privacy, though, right?
yeah just dont use it
I bought a BlackBerry in 2007/2008, and to get on Facebook I needed to show my ID in an o2 shop. This is all that is required. This is suspicious in the very least.
I tried to visit a porn site from Australian VPN server and was prompted with age verification bs.