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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[–] west2seven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (7 children)

This moron is also a MAGA appologist and enabler. I left Proton for other alternatives. They want to claim they are "politically nuetral" well if you really were you wouldnt be commenting at all on politics would you?

[–] architect@thelemmy.club 6 points 8 hours ago

Only idiots want politically neutral, anyways. I want clear biases for the people open and free forms of communication. That’s HIGHLY political.

Politically neutral supports fascism, always.

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[–] Zephorah@discuss.online 14 points 10 hours ago

Stating the obvious.

META was a major lobbyist for all of the state bills we’ve seen so far. There’s probably more. Or META is taking the lead because most hate them already, which provides a nice distraction from anyone else involved.

Tech and data centers want our data. What better way for a complete data set is there? I’m sure Palantir is in there somewhere.

[–] MortUS@lemmy.world -2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (3 children)

Nobody has better solutions to fight against botnets and targeted misinformation. Like, these are big deals that every Nation needs account for some way some how. A non-anonymous internet for the masses, and anonymous internet for those who know how to get around it should be the standard.

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[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

https://proton.me/blog/anonymity-vs-privacy

These guys are such clowns. They stop just short of saying anonymity is bad by saying things like you can't use your logging if you anonymously log in (duh) and bizarrely you may be more secure without it.

"A good example of this is Proton Mail‘s optional authentication logs feature. Enabling this prevents you from logging into your account anonymously, but it improves your security by allowing you to detect suspicious logins (for example, a login from another country).

For most people, privacy is a great deal more important than anonymity'

They won't provide it with their own service and instead push it onto the user. For instance, most recently they have been known to log credit card data. A company really concerned with security would not store this data on their own servers and there are practical ways to accomplish this.

This company makes its money on security theatre. I swear they are a honeypot for criminals actors and they know it hence why they downplay anonymity.

[–] HulkSmashBurgers@reddthat.com 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I'd be ok with age verification if it can be done in an anonyomous way.

Nym's coconut credentials could do this.

https://constructiveproof.com/posts/2020-03-24-nym-credentials-overview/

Of course the people pushing for this won't try to do it that way because protecting the children isn't really their motive. Surveillance is and something like coconut creds would render that moot.

[–] RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world -1 points 7 hours ago

I’d be ok with age verification if it can be done in an anonyomous way

People lost their shit over a local API with an easily fake-able age bracket.

The problem with hyperventilating over everything, is that there is no benefit to even trying to write reasonable laws as they get painted dishonestly anyway.

[–] Murse@slrpnk.net 3 points 7 hours ago

Is there anything stopping me from uploading an ID for Shrek or something? I foresee an explosion of popularity of fake IDs.

[–] myrmidex@belgae.social 8 points 9 hours ago

People forget that the current antitrust actions against Big Tech were started under the first Trump admin

His earlier words did not age well

[–] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 8 points 10 hours ago

Dark web 2.0, here we come!

[–] artifex@piefed.social 9 points 11 hours ago (2 children)
[–] bedwyr@piefed.ca 14 points 11 hours ago

Moreso. It can always get worse, and indeed everything is.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 2 points 10 hours ago

As of right now it is optional.

[–] U7826391786239@piefed.zip 6 points 10 hours ago

i've been wanting to quit internet anyway...

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 hours ago

"Veah ahh yo pay puz?"

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