Zero1012d ago
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Age verification laws are really just censorship mandates clothed as child safety proposals—here’s why. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/rep-finke-was-right-age-gating-isnt-about-kids-its-about-control
Rep. Finke Was Right: Age-Gating Isn’t About Kids, It’s About Control

What’s at stake is whether “protecting children” becomes a legal pretext for embedding government control over the internet to enforce specific moral and religious judgments—judgments that deny marginalized people access to speech, community, history, and truth—into law.

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Mar 16 at 8:01pmTypefully
Show threadBlake Fox2d ago
@eff it is also an automated way for Pedo billionaires to target children.
Show threadgnomeoffender2d ago
@eff says who? pedo you?
Show threadHTPC NZ2d ago
@eff don't worry, once passed same people will say any right wing content must be exempted because otherwise it is trampling on rotten free peaches...
Show threadTor Iver Wilhelmsen2d ago
@htpcnz @eff It will be the 1990s’ "cyber nannies" software over again, when the conservative companies pushing them blocked ACLU and the like but let through right-wing hate sites.
Show threadMegatronicThronBanks2d ago
@eff Just hoping that a Greens/Independant government here in Australia (I can dream) will quietly just reverse all the legislation.
Show threadohir2d ago

@eff

Yes it is not about kids as pushed by the Pals of antir. But in can be about kids and all about privacy.

I did it 2001, I can restore it from memory 2026. As I did research about the state of the tech: now what was novelty then now is at the core, ready and humming. So proper #agever can be implemented the same way as in 2001, just all needed infrastructure already is in place. You can have age verification for your kid without puting whole adult population dancing to the skynet camers on their way to wikipedia.

Is anybody from the pleiade of NGOs "fighting for freedom" willing to fed me for a month and put a younger MBP on my lap? Or is it all about chasing the rabbit and sending the fundraiser junk emails? PM me.

Show threadclonedhuman2d ago
@ohir @eff I have no idea at all what you just said.
Show threadohir2d ago
@clonedhuman
And this is the very cause of current collapse of the world order.
Show threadclonedhuman1d ago

@ohir yes you're right

sorry, it's my fault

Show threadKim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷2d ago
@eff
We’re restricting children’s access to the Internet so that TechBros’ platforms can run amok with no regulation.
I think we’re tackling the symptom, not the disease.
#OSA
Show thread░▒▓█ 𝕘Ｒαᐯ𝕀т𝐀ѕ █▓▒░2d ago
@eff Its not JUST about control, its also about making it so that advertisers can have a way to tell who the humans are, think about it, would meta and them all WANT to age gate when they know their product is addicting to children? Of course not, they just see the writing on the wall when it comes to the dead internet. Imagine how much more they will be able to charge for ID verified impressions and ad views.
Show threadEarthshine1d ago

@eff I honestly think it's even more sinister than that... It's really about feeding surveillance capitalism so that Palantir and their partners can sell the government automated murder systems like Maven with which to target dissidents. https://blog.palantir.com/maven-smart-system-innovating-for-the-alliance-5ebc31709eea

The firms lobbying for these laws are all in the business of data harvesting to profile and de-anonymize people on the internet, and their bottom line comes from having juicy data to sell to corps and agencies with the deepest pockets.

Maven Smart System: Innovating for the Alliance

Industry partners from Europe and North America are coming together to build the next generation of defense capabilities for NATO.

Medium