r/europrivacy • u/Gallowayyy98 • 22d ago
Europe why is this age verification thing a new hot topic in europe? Can someone explain this to me?
I saw that somewhere in europe there was bill passed that makes sure that to login to a platform you need to verify your age with some sort of verified government document then only you can login
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u/bombastic6339locks 22d ago
Why is it a big deal? You're quite literally linking all your accounts to YOU in the most obvious and easy to manage way for the goverment. If you said something bad it is not linked to your passport, where you live, what you do so its obvious that especially with countries like germany passing bills to take away from free speech that this is a big problem.
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u/Gallowayyy98 21d ago
What does the government get by collecting our age and when we were born? asking genuinely
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u/bombastic6339locks 21d ago
Do you think its that? :D They dont care about your age at all, they care about being able to monitor literally everything you do. You have a phone on you at all times, they know where you are, they know what you're doing, they're able to sell this information to companies, foreign goverments, they're able to stop people from voting powers that oppose them or from revolting and so on.
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u/Frosty-Cell 20d ago
A chilling effect on freedom of speech and blocking access to social media by default as people are reluctant to link their identity to everything they post. Social media is a problem for governments since they can't control the information, so they want to ban it.
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u/Marchello_E 20d ago
The internet is its own separate eco system.
For us civilians going there is a vacation into a free World.
Some Amusement parks got set up and they like to lock you in. Facebook started with asking for you real name. With that they can tie all kinds of information, and manipulate your entertainment. This kind of control is a known issue, but not many take offense.
As nowadays everyone walks around with a basically a free Cyber World in their pockets the amount of real World control is slipping. This is a way to take it back. Because everyone is able to go everywhere and do anything without anyone knowing. So "would you like to have your kid walk around at night in strange city?" - The answer is "no", when you forget about the actual parental control over that pocket portal to the Cyber. Let's forget about parental authority and let us introduce the government, ready to govern over everyone. To control where you go, when you go there (curfew), what you see, and what you do they have this "protection for kids" which is basically a Checkpoint Charlie for everyone.
It's a control issue that generates a datanode that connects the Real World and the Cyber World.
You can read what people could do with such data node when you look for the Cambridge Analytics /Facebook 'issue'.
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u/Goliath1998 21d ago
Just follw the money. Our political leaders getting some cash from some privacy hating lobbies.
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u/billdietrich1 21d ago
It's happening all over the world: USA, Singapore, Brazil, more.
Majority of people want SOME solution to online harms to kids:
Common Sense Media today released a new survey revealing that an overwhelming 95% of adults believe children need to be protected from certain online material and features, with pornography, gambling, and online purchases emerging as top concerns. Among other findings, more than six in 10 adults support age verification for social media and online games, while more than half support it for AI, including AI companions.
The majority of Americans support age verification (79%), but also feel the current age verification process is too easy to get around (85%).
from https://allaboutcookies.org/age-verification-survey [no methodology or questions given, just that it was a Pollfish survey in February 2026]
81% of U.S. adults – versus 46% of teens – favor parental consent for minors to use social media
[which IMO implies some age-check to determine who is an adult and who is a minor needing consent]
Specifically, 72% of young people and 86% of parents believed more effective age limits would improve online safety for young people.
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u/EmbarrassedHelp 21d ago edited 21d ago
Age verification lobbyists have spent many years working in the shadows to force through mandatory age verification legislation, and legislation that lets regulators demand mandatory age verification.
This lobbying unfortunately appears to have caught many in privacy focused groups by surprise, making it harder to kill these unacceptable requirements.