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The Age Verification Trap... Verifying user’s ages undermines everyone’s data protection (spectrum.ieee.org)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by Beep@lemmus.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Hacker News.

Social media is going the way of alcohol, gambling, and other social sins: societies are deciding it’s no longer kids’ stuff. Lawmakers point to compulsive use, exposure to harmful content, and mounting concerns about adolescent mental health. So, many propose to set a minimum age, usually 13 or 16.

In cases when regulators demand real enforcement rather than symbolic rules, platforms run into a basic technical problem. The only way to prove that someone is old enough to use a site is to collect personal data about who they are. And the only way to prove that you checked is to keep the data indefinitely. Age-restriction laws push platforms toward intrusive verification systems that often directly conflict with modern data-privacy law.

This is the age-verification trap. Strong enforcement of age rules undermines data privacy.

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[-] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 38 points 2 weeks ago

There's no reason to give in to any of this shit in Any way

[-] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Ah, well most people use the internet for banking, employment, housing, medical care, government services, and communicating with friends and family, so... how would you propose to avoid it once it's implemented?

*edit: downvotes, but no counterarguments. Hilarious.

[-] Justifier@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

I know it may difficult to believe, but humanity existed before the internet era. If it doesnt actually serve the people and is instead being egregiously leveraged against them, it needs to be flushed down with the rest of the waste

Doctors can still accommodate clients without internet communications

Banks can still give out and accept your money, and you are perfectly capable of writing down those transactions in a ledger with red and black ink

Landlords or mortgage holders do too, even if you use paper cheques. You... Can... write a cheque... right?

Employers have been whining for at least since I started working about people being on the internet on their phones (2010's), they'd consider you ditching it a win

Friends and family? Oh man you may or may not believe it, but you may actually have to meet up irl to maintain those relationships. Maybe even every weekend.

How to avoid it when implemented? TOR, self hosted Docker programs like TeamSpeak6, Fluxer or anything similar. There's a lot of options there though you have to have the slightest interest to fix then

It can go as far as meshtastic nodes and HomeAssistant using LORA communications these days. There is a guy in Ukraine doing just that to use HA at work to trigger smart home systems when cellular is down

https://reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1r8ftc0/i_control_my_home_assistant_over_lora_radio_when/

People use this garbage because its convenient and easily accessible is all, it takes maybe a weekend of research to bypass all formal methods of communication on 10 year old hardware sitting in peoples closets if someone is even slightly aspiring to, and it only takes one person capable of doing so per family or even maybe town if this goes far enough past people's willingness to tolerate it

this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2026
506 points (100.0% liked)

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