mastodon - Link to source

The scariest thing about new #AgeVerification laws being introduced in Europe (France, I was expecting more from you) is to see the positive reactions of my family members, who have fallen hook, line and sinker for the arguments discussed in the media. "It's to protect the children!" No it isn't.

I'm sending this superb article by the @eff to all of them:
🔗: eff.org/issues/age-verificatio…

Now is the time to #resist and speak up and educate those around us ✊ #privacy

Age Verification and Age Gating: Resource Hub

Age verification (or age-gating) laws generally require online services to check, estimate, or verify all users’ ages—often through invasive tools like ID checks, biometric scans, or other dubious “age estimation” methods—before granting them access …
Electronic Frontier Foundation
#resist #Privacy #ageverification @Electronic Frontier Foundation

reshared this

in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

mastodon - Link to source

Erik Jonker

...if i use a pseudonym , coupled to a specific provider (it can't be linked to another provider or transactions elsewhere) and i use Zero Knowledge Proof to show that i am above a certain age, privacy friendly solutions are possible i think, the problem remains however the implementation, who controls and audits it etcetera
This entry was edited (Thursday, July 23, 2026, 9:16 AM)
in reply to Erik Jonker

mastodon - Link to source

Jesper Lund

@ErikJonker
First, these solutions have technical and legal requirements that will create a digital exclusion problem for some people. For example, the EU age verification app requires a smartphone and some ID documentation to enroll.

Second, the anonymous age verification methods are really easy to circumvent. With the EU app, a QR code must be scanned to do the age check, but it is impossible to check whether this is done by the actual user or someome else.

@_elena @eff

@Electronic Frontier Foundation @Erik Jonker @Elena Rossini 🌈
in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

mastodon - Link to source

Elena Rossini 🌈

For the record, I am positively fuming over the new #AgeVerification laws being introduced in France.

How convenient that this way Big Tech behemoths like Meta, X and TikTok won't have to change a thing. (Don't get me started about Grok, which should have been banned MONTHS ago).

AGE isn't the problem. It's the TOXIC, PREDATORY, EXTRACTIVE nature of these platforms that is the real issue.

They are getting away scot-free. I hate it. All I can do is speak up with those around me 🫤

#ageverification
in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

mastodon - Link to source

Wolkensteine 🏳️‍🌈

The best argument in my opinion to get people on board that aren't tech savvy is to show them that this doesn't even work. Because Australia has shown it doesn't.
If a kid has not to worry about harsh consequences and breaking rules is so easy they will certainly do it.

Also I totally agree with you, if Social Media is so dangerous, why not protect all from it by regulating dark patterns, manipulative design and other such things?

Australia: The "cool kids" ignore social media ban, many return

Australia's social media ban for children is increasingly circumvented. Those who comply are considered "uncool".
Martin Holland (heise online)
in reply to sknob

mastodon - Link to source

Aral Balkan

@sknob Just dropping this here from *checks the calendar* seven years ago:

ar.al/2019/11/29/the-future-of…

They know exactly what they’re doing. They were told it to their faces.

The Future of Internet Regulation at the European Parliament

A brief write-up of my talk at the EU Parliament last week with embedded videos of my talk and a link to my slides.
Aral Balkan
@sknob
in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

mastodon - Link to source

☀️Solgubben

Also, even if these bans worked, then they'd pull the carpet under the feet of a generation that grew up with them, and know nothing else.

To me the whole mainstream media discourse around this has been quite obvious. It's about doing *something*, but be darn sure it only impacts young people because they are not allowed to vote, and have no financial power. Don't change anything that'd inconvenience the adults, or the profit hoarding owning structures.

in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

mastodon - Link to source

s1m0n4

I am against identity checks too and I disapprove of this point of the French law recently adopted.
However reducing the matter to main SM, even if they're extremely toxic and dangerous, is looking at the tip of the iceberg.

Between 1999-2022 teens endurance has dropped 18% in 🇫🇷.
univ-spn.fr/enquete-aupres-de-…
Half of 11 y/o students is unable to run more than 5 min.
franceinfo.fr/societe/enfance-…

An increasing number of studies also shows a cognitive debt associated to the use of AI chats.

/1

Enquête auprès de 2 400 professeurs d’EPS : « Nos élèves manquent de souffle et de force » - Université Sorbonne Paris Nord

Alors que les performances à l’endurance des élèves ont chuté de près de 18 % entre 1999 et 2022, l’éducation nationale commence à mesurer la condition physique des enfants en classe de 6e.
Léa Ferbos (Université Sorbonne Paris Nord)
in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

mastodon - Link to source

jali 🌈

Another thing that I believe is worth considering: Over the past decades, public spaces, where children and adolescents could move freely and unsupervised have become few and far between. Public spaces get more and more privatised, youth clubs are closed because they are "too expensive". Same for public pools parks etc. (1/2) #ageverification
#ageverification
in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

mastodon - Link to source

Mark

so, I am Australian. What i have seen is that these kinda of laws here have had minor effect so far.
Mostly because the age verification AI magic (and data collection) has been left upto big tech to implement, who also have no incentive to ensure their methods (and when that check happens) are particularly effective.
I read all this as being more of another haphazard and bumbling way of attacking the political influence of American tech companies.
in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

mastodon - Link to source

Marcos Dione

> France, I was expecting more from you

Unluckily #France is getting more and more right wing, specially since the government (supposedly centrist) is OK'ing everything they bring up:

* crypto backdoors
* presumption of self defense for police brutality
* ID checks in websites
* deregulation of pesticides

I can keep going...

@eff

#france @Electronic Frontier Foundation
in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

mastodon - Link to source

lieven

I was just kicked off Reddit over this. Everything about my history there and my email and domain clearly indicate I am an adult and yet they decided I may be under 13. They claim EU legislation forces them (bull). It's probably the largest pan-European online community and it will fall apart over this (also because various mods over there refuse to act). It's a damn shame and does nothing of the good it claims. Verify or (online) death, apparently.
in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

mastodon - Link to source

Gyula R. | Mindful Photography📷✨

How about protecting democracy, including children, by banning Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter, and TikTok in the EU?!

Those toxic, unethical for-profit social networks keep funding the white supremacist BS in the US, Europe, and beyond; they allow the spreading of fascist propaganda and wild conspiracy theories and also expose kids to harmful content. Moreover, they have become tools of mass surveillance in fascist hands to silence and punish dissent.

in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

mastodon - Link to source

Kévin ⏚

France by Macron isn't the France you'd expect and his party (including those in that orbit) is all about stealing ideas from Le Pen's party.

The law still has to pass the Conseil Constitutionnelle before it can be implemented which is still an opportunity for it to be shot down

mamot.fr/@LaQuadrature/1169646…

La Quadrature du Net (@LaQuadrature@mamot.fr)

Attached: 1 video L'interdiction faite aux mineur·es de moins de 15 ans d'accéder aux réseaux sociaux vient d'être votée par le Parlement.
La Quadrature du Net (Mamot - Le Mastodon de La Quadrature du Net)
in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

mastodon - Link to source

RejZoR

It's wild how quickly everyone just fucking drops everything when "think of the children" argument is involved.

I fear how restricted internet will become when I'll refuse to "verify" my identity online. Because the whole thing stinks of speech control and how people think and has very little to do with safety of children. There is many ways to do that and none of them picked those options or methods.

Unknown parent

mastodon - Link to source

lieven

Thanks. It really sucks and I am fairly angry but I am primarily worried about the community. There's a lot of potential for collective activist/political power which is now fracturing. We need to fight this together. For a year I and some others tried to get a 'collective move' going to Lemmy or something but alas. This was all foreseeable. For me it's Mastodon and Lemmy now, which is lovely but nowhere near the same scale.
in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

mastodon - Link to source

Ivan G.

yep when I took those topics with my parents their reaction was the same. The other problem is that most of the people don't even know about those law being discussed (chat control, age verifaction) until is too late. I think that we are losing these battles, because very few people care, usually people react with: "there are bigger problem than that" or "is for the children"
I'm becoming very pessimistic, and in the future a VPN will be necessary (before it will become illegal)
Unknown parent

mastodon - Link to source

Ivan G.

yep same for my parents, and they have a progressive leftist background, still argued that age verification is useful to protect children.
Or the other argument is: "if you have nothing to hide".
Main problem is it started with porn, now with social media (tbh if facebook instagram and tiktok will disappear i'll be happy, but that's not the issue), then what's next?
And I wonder: will it be available on every platform, or only android and iphone or only a specific browser (by google)?
in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

mastodon - Link to source

romli

your post reads like Europe, and especially France, are the bad guys for spying on people accessing social media.

The bad guys are the big tech platforms they're trying to restrict. And big tech already spies on you way more than this gov measure will. You think big tech don't have a good idea of the age of users already? Or a full profile of their habits? Big tech didnt push for this. People and parents did .

This needs to be framed as a reason not to use big tech. Not a reason to divide democracies by fostering the idea that it is 'Europe' that is spying on people rather than big tech

in reply to Ivan G.

mastodon - Link to source

Murdoc Addams 🧛🏻 🇨🇦

@dreamos82
In case it's helpful to anyone reading this thread, there are some quick and easy resources about privacy concerns and even the "nothing to hide" argument here: techne-system.neocities.org/pr…

There's also a lesson on Media Literacy in the Critical Thinking topic.

8 Technology & Society I :: Techne

Technology & Society - Bare Essentials Introduction Technology is any tool, system, or method that extends human capability. A wheelchair extends mobility. A telescope extends vision.
Techne
@Ivan G.
in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

mastodon - Link to source

eiskjchs

1.) I am not posting here much, but i can see the strong opposition against chat control and age verification here. Don't get me wrong, i do not like it, but i can't say i really care. Hence my honest question: why should i fight against age verification on platforms i do not use and would love for them to cease to exist? I am from eastern europe and we have a history of state controlling every aspect of peoples lives. And we got to revolt anyway, maybe even, because of it. ...
in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

akkoma - Link to source

xenia, the fediverse eepy kitty :tranarchy_punk_nonbinary_wartime: :yellow:

Unknown parent

mastodon - Link to source

Tagomago

@murdoc Also, we should not overlook the exponential value of the aggregate (not just individual data) in terms of surveillance and control. Maybe you’re OK with it, but the society as a whole is affected, and the systems and services you use will suffer.

Anyway, people who argue against this actually are blindly saying “I just want to use this app, let me alone”.

@Murdoc Addams 🧛🏻 🇨🇦
in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

mastodon - Link to source

David Guillot

> France, I was expecting more from you

The man who runs the French Republic is not representing the French people anymore for a while now.

He nominates Prime Ministers who cannot agree with the coalition that won the legislative elections, ending up finding deals with the far right.

He makes decisions the competent Ministers disagree with, and forces them through Parliament.

We sign petitions (on the official Parliament petition platform), they ignore them, against the rules.

And the mainstream media, being held by personal friends of his, find nothing to say about it.

Don't expect anything from us until the next violent revolution.

in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

mastodon - Link to source

DecentraliseEverything

This is all well and good but until someone actually has the nous to say HOW to protect children from horrific socially destructive online content (other than tell the parents to isolate kids from their peers and peers culture) the arguments will, rightly, fall on deaf ears. Seriously harmful content for children online exists and its prolific. Age verification is of course a dangerous Trojan horse and must be opposed, but people will risk that when no alternative is proposed.
This entry was edited (Thursday, July 23, 2026, 4:59 PM)
in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

sharkey - Link to source

Theriac

tech-broism - they want a surveillance world-wide state, where crappy LLMs harvest all data to sell for military application - the means by which they sell their vision to governments.
It's the matrix except it's a bunch of psychopaths not computers. It's feudalism 2.0.
This entry was edited (Thursday, July 23, 2026, 1:22 PM)
in reply to Elena Rossini 🌈

gotosocial - Link to source

wing_of_eternity

@eff@mastodon.socialWell, my folks possibly don;t even know about this, but in the chance they do, well, not sure what I can send them, they would much rather believe that online friendship does not exist. That all of it is a scam. (or, if not all then most of it). Most of my friends are, perhaps, just scammer, and they keep asking me how do I know they aren't, and so on. I could almost swear the generation from the 80s, born in here definitely thinks this way, for it's not just my folks, but some of their friends too, possibly.
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