2d ago

Age Verification Is A Windfall for Big Tech—And A Death Sentence For Smaller Platforms

www.eff.org

This consolidation of power is a dream come true for the Big Tech platforms, but it’s a nightmare for users. While the megacorporations get more traffic and a whole lot more user data (read: profit), users are left with far fewer community options and a bland, corporate surveillance machine instead of a vibrant public sphere. The internet we all fell in love with is a diverse and colorful place, full of innovation, connection, and unique opportunities for self-expression. That internet—our internet—is worth defending.

Privacy @lemmy.world

floofloof @lemmy.ca

2d ago

Age Verification Is A Windfall for Big Tech—And A Death Sentence For Smaller Platforms

www.eff.org /deeplinks/2025/09/age-verification-windfall-big-tech-and-death-sentence-smaller-platforms

Technology @programming.dev

Pro @programming.dev

2d ago

Age Verification Is A Windfall for Big Tech—And A Death Sentence For Smaller Platforms

www.eff.org /deeplinks/2025/09/age-verification-windfall-big-tech-and-death-sentence-smaller-platforms

92 comments

What if devices would have a private chip to have the ID, so the website would just request if user is underage or not. Would this be private? Instead of sending the whole id to the online platform?
Amazes me how the UK Labour Party and Starmer managed to absolutely squander their one opportunity after gaining power for the first time in many years.
Remember to always host anonymously.
- Share some tips for that?
i find it interesting that some of the most debased, vile, disgusting perverts to ever live are passing laws to force regular, everyday people to dox themselves just so they can see a tig ol gilf bitty.
Depends on the platform surely, couldn't a lemmy instance just ignore the UK? Not block, ignore.
I am sure I saw that smaller platforms are seeing a surge in popularity because they are not doing it while pornhub saw a large drop. How many switched to a VPN and how many use another site?
- Even safer might be that image that's been circulating. It states that if you're in the UK, the hosting site is required to verify your age, but they're not required to verify your location. Now, please click on of these buttons indicating whether or not you're in the UK to determine whether age verification must be performed.
  (Presumably "I am in the UK" leads to an innocuous website)
  
  I'd prefer: "I'm in the UK and want to be age verified" and "I'm not in the UK and don't want to be age verified."
- Most of the smaller sites are doing just that. But mainstream sites do have identification in place.
  I still think it's a clearly designed plan by VPN providers to make themselves relevant.
If I have to verify myself I simply won't use it, I really don't care, there's nothing so important online that I need to prove my identity to see it. (Banking and shit like that aside of course). Social media? Give me a break I'm already over it before all this ID shit. I hope it all burns to the ground.
- Yup, the furthest I'd go is entering a birthdate. Depending on the service, I'm anywhere from 21 to 105 years old.
- Facebook is kinda unavoidable here.
  I have young kids, and marketplace has saved me thousands of dollars. Kids need a lot of different stuff at different ages and it's nice to be able to flip the stuff you dont need anymore and get the stuff they do need second hand.
  Also messenger, what's app. My apartment building has a what's app group thats invaluable. I talk to customers on messenger.
  
  This is just an excuse, not a justification. There's always garage sales and such. Also, Facebook Marketplace is not the only game in town.
  
  It’s completely avoidable
  
  It is totally avoidable, you will find new ways to handle your business. You have to stop using their service, they are a cancer on our society and they are actively engaging in propaganda for genocide amongst many other shitty things.
  The sooner you pull the trigger the better off you will be. It is past time to move on.
  
  The issues related to facebook marketplace are not unique. Plenty of people have second-hand items to sell without using fb marketplace.
  
  I'm in this weird middle ground where I hate FB with a passion and it depresses me every time I log in, but I need to create a personal brand for my business (and to get laid, who am I kidding) and honestly I'm thinking about getting one of my friends to run it for me, which seems weird but
- Same. I know there are easy ways around it but I'm not going to use them, and I wish more people could take this attitude - if everyone cut down their Internet usage in response to this ID stuff things would quickly start to turn around
  
  It would be a big struggle for me but I still agree with you.
- Same. I hardly use youtube and will pirate anything I want to see.
  I am planning on open sourcing phones and computers too.
  Silicon valley parasites can do their age verification without me, that is the last straw, I hardly use now anyway.
- But what if they put porn behind a id wall.
  
  I don't think porn sites in other countries care about our laws.
  
  torrents
  
  I plain feel sorry for the service that attempts to get between people and their porn.
  
  More people gonna get their porn from darknet. And discover its wider selection of genres...
  
  People just go to the porn sites that aren't hosted in a jurisdiction that requires ID verification and the ID verifying platforms lose traffic or people use VPNs.
  
  There's no shortage of other ways to get it for an enterprising person, maybe a few extra clicks once you know where to go. That's likely one of the goals though, whitewashing the internet. It's such a massive business though, but maybe very fractured and independent.
  
  Gay-torrents is still around. Though they really need to set up an i2p instance too.
I am disinclined to believe that this is a death-sentence for smaller platforms longterm.
- Depends on the nature of the platform. It is not good for small commercial entities that will be required to enact a ID verification system because it will increase the cost of entry to the market.
  Increasing the cost of entry will benefit large corporations that will easily absorb the cost. Platforms that don't require it will likely be unaffected.
  
  It is not good for small commercial entities that will be required to enact a ID verification system because it will increase the cost of entry to the market.
  As someone who works in this space, I doubt it’s going to be an issue for smaller entities. We already have SSO for basic login identity from a variety of providers (Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Apple) — smaller sites already love to use these as it provides easy access to existing users, and saves a ton of coding for having to handle login information, password management, etc.
  These same entities can handle the age verification. Now I can see arguments as to why centralizing logins and age verification like this could be a problem for users, but if I decided to start my own social media app tomorrow I’d likely rely on the big platforms to handle all of this (as we already see everywhere — heck, app for ordering pizza support Facebook, Google, and Apple logins), and save myself the cost and hassle of implementing this myself (never mind the potential embarrassment and liability should someone hack my site). Then it’s on those platforms to worry about age verification.
  All of these services are currently free, and save you from a ton of coding around user accounts and authentication, so using them is usually cheaper then having to DIY it.
Hopefully, in the EU at least, the verification will be provided by the government. Like a 2FA, meaning Big Tech would only get a verified token and nothing else.
The government already got passports with our face, and have had it for many years. They could use that information.
That would mean that any platform could implement this verification, and never get hold on any data.
Best case in a shitty scenario, I know.
- No. There's no "hopefully" anything when it comes to this bullshit. It's bad for the individual, full stop. This is not a thing to compromise on, because any compromise at all will eventually harm the users (though leaks/hacks, or government overreach, etc.) without any actual benefit or offset to them.
  
  Its bad, but a govt service is the best implementation.
- one of the big problems that isn't solved by this is what gets to be behind verification. who decides what kids aren't allowed to see. we've seen already that most of the world's governments can't really be trusted with what is adult content and not.
  
  When I was in highschool my friends parents had child lock bullshit on his computer, poor sod couldn't even goto wikipedia because there are articles with naughty words.
  This shit is real slippery slope shit.
Will vpns still work? What would the legal ramifications be if you used one?
- They're planning on making vpns illegal. They haven't said that yet but they are.
  
  making vpns illegal
  PRC anthem intensifies
- You can't always simply VPN around it. I applied for a job via one of the popular job sites. Tried to log back in to the job site a week later only to to find my account had been blocked until I provide proof of ID to a US based third party company ...I'm in Europe. Spoiler alert: I did not provide proof of ID & so have no idea whether or not I was a suitable applicant for the job.
  Guess i won't be job hunting through that site again. The whole thing is farcical.
  
  This is the display of how we fight this. And I can only imagine the balls it took for you to take that position and move along. You're one of those scarce unsung heroes that stands by his values instead of bending over to avoid inconvenience or even potentially detrimental outcomes.
We should just make an Internet that you have to VPN into. Like sci-fi space travel? We can call it the "hypernet".
- Its called i2p and tor
- We have something like that, it's called darknet.
  
  How do you use it without being caught at a node or getting on a list for downloading associated software though?
there need to be dedicated 3rd party age verification services separate from the site. the people with my identity info don’t need to see what i’m doing on the site, and the site doesn’t need to know my identity any more than a general age group.
- No, as soon as you ask the government to send a site a token verifying you, you’ve given up your privacy to the government.
  Also, how are smaller sites going to pay for this service? This is the tech bros using the religious nuts to pull the ladder up behind them. Locking in the monopoly. The only answer is the freedom we’ve had for the last 35 years.
  
  Well, as much as I hate it, there's no privacy when it comes to your government, and this is the case even since the internet was a thing.
  Yes, we can keep some stuff obscured from the government, but the fact is that they know everything about us since we are born (probably even before). We need driver's license, passport, bank accounts, registering homes, cars, even dogs, putting kids in the school system, health services, the list seems infinite.
  But that does not mean we have to stop pushing back, because if we do, we're utterly fucked.
users are left with far fewer community options
Where is the fediverse in this analysis?
Edit: The article references Bluesky fleeing Mississippi due to risk of fines. Do admins running fediverse instances run similar risks?
Bluesky was the first platform to make the announcement. In a public blogpost, Bluesky condemned H.B. 1126’s broad scope, barriers to innovation, and privacy implications, explaining that the law forces platforms to “make every Mississippi Bluesky user hand over sensitive personal information and undergo age checks to access the site—or risk massive fines.” As Bluesky noted, “This dynamic entrenches existing big tech platforms while stifling the innovation and competition that benefits users.” Instead, Bluesky made the decision to cut off Mississippians entirely until the courts consider whether to overturn the law.
- Just goes to show that blue sky isn't as decentralized as they would like you to think they are.

92 comments