Selling your digital soul to use Bluesky's DMs isn't just a bad idea, it's the law
- Reference: 1753088532
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/07/21/opinion_column_age_verification/
- Source link:
Won't somebody think of the European children? Meta and Google put up their hands to help on the same day [2]READ MORE
As with many very bad ideas, it comes from a simple statement that discourages discussion: children are seeing damaging content online, from which they should be protected. If you choose not to be age-verified on UK Bluesky, you will not be able to view adult content nor use direct messaging. If you consent to age verification, you can. Sounds reasonable. Arguing about it implies selfishness at best, to say nothing of the worst.
Not so. Here goes.
There are only two things wrong with using age verification to shield kids from inappropriate content – the age verification bit and the inappropriate content bit. UK law and Bluesky's way of complying demonstrate both.
Starting with inappropriate content, of course, it has never in the history of the free world been effectively defined. It's case-by-case, currently including content about alcohol and gambling alongside explicit sexual material. Then there's non-sexual nudity, suggestive material, and, depending on who you talk to, discussions about gender and sexuality.
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The list can be as broad as you like. Bluesky's own adult content filter settings allow a curiously granular set of fine-tuning switches including "potentially disturbing media." One presumes this switch just disconnects the internet.
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You might not mind not being able to share a picture of that great new craft beer, or link to that fascinating question to which the answer is 93*. But many professional communities online, from medics to medievalists, will affirm how important it is to be able to talk to all sorts of people about all of humanity, including those that make your mythical maiden aunt blush. Moreover, social media is their glue. One of the great benefits of online life is bringing birds of a feather together, and environments that restrict how they flock are not conducive.
You can be sure that restrictions will tighten. Whatever algorithm is in place to identify inappropriate content, it'll be set as strictly as possible. Big fines if you're too lax. Nothing for over-zealousness. There's no moderating feedback path.
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Even so, that may seem acceptable collateral damage if children can't see that stuff alongside the damaging material. Real life has age verification on lots of things, some more effective than others, but most worth keeping around. Why should online age verification be any different? Why not just verify and be done? Over to you, Bluesky.
The path Bluesky has chosen is Kids Web Services (KWS), a system controlled by Epic Games. Yes, [7]that Epic Games . To verify yourself as an adult to Bluesky UK, you'll have to register with KWS. You don't have to use KWS if you're a kid – only if you're an adult, or "parent" as KWS will refer to you.
[8]Stopping the rot when good software goes bad means new rules from the start
[9]AI scores a huge own goal if you play up and play the game
[10]Your browser has ad tech's fingerprints all over it, but there's a clean-up squad in town
[11]The one thing SME IT can do that the big guys can't: Change the world
That's a clue that KWS isn't primarily an age verification platform; it's a child privacy protection system. The sort you'd build – or buy in – when huge fines for violating children's privacy are in the air. Epic has focused on the parental registration part of the platform and made it available for free as a tool for adult age verification. It might seem uncomfortable to force adults onto something called Kids Web Services, but to be fair rebranding as Adult Web Services would be even worse.
A free service from a major company; it's easy to see what Bluesky gets out of it. What does Epic get? Irish data compliance lawyer and blogger Simon McGarr [12]dug around and found out . You have to give permission for an enormous amount of your personal data, including payment card details, phone number, address, face scan, national ID numbers and documents, access to your device details, when, where, and for how often you do things online, and on and on.
This is by way of building what Epic [13]describes as a corporate asset of a database to do with as it wishes. McGarr has been reading the fine print: "If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, we may share your personal information with the acquiring or receiving entity."
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The price for being an adult on Bluesky is corporate surveillance, at least in the UK, on a fortnight's notice. This has very little to do, in theory or practice, with protecting children frI have om harm online, and everything about protecting Bluesky and Epic's bottom lines.
This isn't even accidental, as successive UK governments have shown little to no interest in including online rights and privacy advocates in the discussions about child protection. You don't when you know the proper answer goes against your agenda that Something Must Be Done. It's Been Done now, and it's a mess. When even [15]Meta and Google have better answers about user privacy and age verification, you have erred, and erred hard.
There is a lot more of this to come, as algorithms tuned for revenue and backed by flawed laws are used for social control. The very real problems of being today's child will be made not one whit better, nor those of the adult they grow into. The UK government is very keen to show Britain as a world leader in digital. In the case of leading in the wrong direction, it's got its wish. ®
*How many [16]pansies there are in the Bayeux Tapestry.
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://bsky.social/about/blog/07-10-2025-age-assurance
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/04/meta_google_europe_age_assurance/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/columnists&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aH4PtJ5fR9queGVkW8hPWwAAAAk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/columnists&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aH4PtJ5fR9queGVkW8hPWwAAAAk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/columnists&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aH4PtJ5fR9queGVkW8hPWwAAAAk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/columnists&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aH4PtJ5fR9queGVkW8hPWwAAAAk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/12/19/23516925/epic-games-ftc-settlement-520-million
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/14/software_rot_opinion/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/07/ai_scores_a_huge_own/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/30/opinion_browser/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/23/opinion_column_sme_agile_change/
[12] https://www.thegist.ie/the-gist-age-verification-is-an-epic-fail/
[13] https://www.kidswebservices.com/en-US/joint-processing-arrangement
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/columnists&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aH4PtJ5fR9queGVkW8hPWwAAAAk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/04/meta_google_europe_age_assurance/
[16] https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/bayeux-tapestry-penis-why-norman-conquest-battle-hastings-william-conqueror/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Farewell UK based web sites!
Australia has introduced this for Web Seach.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-11/age-verification-search-engines/105516256
From December 27, Google and Microsoft will have to use some form of age-assurance technology on users when they sign in, or face fines of almost $50 million per breach.
Who knows how far this poison will spread.
Almost the whole of the internet will become Before The Watershed
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/broadcast-standards/what-is-the-watershed
If You Want a Picture of the Future, Imagine a Only Being Able To Watch "Homes Under The Hammer" – for Ever
Re: Farewell UK based web sites!
I'm taking [1]SearXNG for a test drive, it seems to return useful results so far. And it's distributed [2]so you can choose your instance .
[1] https://docs.searxng.org/
[2] https://searx.space/
Re: Farewell UK based web sites!
Are Labour and Tories going to install age check on their websites?
As of today, I can see bare c*nts there without even a warning pop up!
End of the public internet, mostly
What they are going to find is that people, most of them are simply not going to do this. They either move to a site that doesn't have this or if they can't. Just stop using the internet for most things.
Then they vote the politician out of office that put this laws into effect as a revenge. I just hope they don't vote for the extremist far-right in their place. Since they have been very much in favour of this type of surveillance.
Furious
Between this and the recent news that payment networks are being used by Evangelical groups to remove games from Steam, it's pretty clear we've handed permission to be on the internet to people who are outside of our national control, and have no interest in the quality or type of service we are given.
Indeed, they're actively working to ensure that what we see is decided by them.
This was pointed out to the Government throughout the passage of this cretinous legislation, along with the myriad other harms it causes and potential risk to people online - and of course was roundly ignored because our MPs are universally beholden to corporate lobbyists and well funded activist groups. It is their job to protect us from nonsense like this, not hand over our rights and safety to organisations who have none of those concerns.
VPN, or Tor
As title, take your pick. The children already know this!
Proof of Age
I think next time elections come round, I'm going to insist on Proof of Age from any candidate expecting my vote. Their credit card details or a notarised copy of Birth certificate will do.
In the meantime, I don't think this is going to keep any children out of harm's way. But it will be the death knell for many small businesses selling "non child-friendly" products (whether or not they are the sort of things that any child would be interested in) for whom the burden of administration simply won't be worth the effort. So much for helping the economy grow.
Moden Slavery
Western governments saw China’s rise and learned the wrong lesson. China became an economic superpower because we handed it our manufacturing, not because it scans faces before letting people speak. But instead of rebuilding industry or fixing broken systems, our leaders fixate on the one part they can copy: control.
They think if they recreate the authoritarian layer - ID checks, content bans, constant surveillance - then the prosperity will follow. That if we’re all monitored, flagged, and filtered like factory workers, the economy will somehow reboot itself.
It’s delusional. Surveillance didn’t make China rich. We did - by outsourcing labour to a nation willing to underpay and overwork. Now our governments want to simulate the same conditions at home. Not by reviving industry, but by quietly introducing digital serfdom.
Because deep down, they believe the most productive citizen is a frightened, obedient, datafied ghost - hungry enough to work, but too exhausted to resist.
Out of curiousity
"This has very little to do, in theory or practice, with protecting children frI have om harm online, and everything about protecting Bluesky and Epic's bottom lines."
I'm not as up on acronyms as I should be I guess. What is "frl"?
Farewell UK based web sites!
If I encounter a web site which wants me to provide sensitive information to some rando age verification service, it will be the very last time I visit it.
Whenever the justification for something is "think of the children", you know it's just a diversion from the real reason.