this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2026
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Online age-verification tools spread across U.S. for child safety, but adults are being surveilled (www.cnbc.com)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/technology@lemmy.world
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New U.S laws designed to protect minors are pulling millions of adult Americans into mandatory age-verification gates to access online content, leading to backlash from users and criticism from privacy advocates that a free and open internet is at stake. Roughly half of U.S. states have enacted or are advancing laws requiring platforms — including adult content sites, online gaming services, and social media apps — to block underage users, forcing companies to screen everyone who approaches these digital gates.

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[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 4 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

How about a system where I can go physically to a shop, show them my id, then the clerk allows me to buy a box of tokens that I picked up myself from the shelf.

I can pay with cash, the clerk just looks at my face and ID, nothing gets entered into the system.

Then I have a bag of tokens that could have various expire dates. Some could last years. They are not tied to any person in anyway but only adults could access them.

And yes, I can totally give it to some kids, but that’s no different than me buying kids alcohol.

[–] Kraiden@piefed.social 2 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I mean, yes, it's the same process. It's just moving the convenience store to your phone, and instead of being issued a physical ID by the dmv or whoever, you're given a digital one. To be clear, that ID, and therefore your information is stored locally on your device, not in a server somewhere.

[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 5 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

stored locally on your device

While I would trust that for a FOSS app, it would be too easy for a proprietary app to just “backup” your data.

With the physical method, everyone can be sure they are anonymous through common sense.

[–] Kraiden@piefed.social 1 points 22 hours ago

Sure, but I have 2 counterpoints:

  1. There's no reason the 3rd party app needs to be proprietary. This is starting to get technical, but my understanding is that you get a cert from the requester, and it's the combination of that with the state issued magic cert that's used for validation. The 3rd party app is essentially just a calculator. It doesn't need any certs of its own

  2. That's an implementation detail. My argument is that it's the implementation that's the real cause for concern here, not the idea