Age checks could turn internet into an ID checkpoint, complains Proton CEO
- Reference: 1776961207
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/04/23/proton_ceo_age_checks_id_checkpoint/
- Source link:
In [1]a blog post on Thursday , Andy Yen, CEO of Proton, argues that the current push for age checks risks flipping the web from anonymous by default to something closer to "show your papers" before you click.
The problem, he says, is that you can't reliably identify minors without identifying everyone else first, meaning systems built to protect kids inevitably sweep up adults too. "We cannot accept a world where every adult is expected to hand over ID as the price of going online."
[2]
That argument is landing as age checks move from policy debate to product reality. [3]Anthropic has already rolled out ID verification tied to certain personas in its Claude chatbot , while [4]Microsoft has warned UK Xbox users they'll need to verify their age to keep using core social features. [5]Sony has also begun introducing age checks for PlayStation users this week , and Discord, after flirting with the idea, [6]notably hit the brakes after admitting hackers accessed records, including government ID photos, tied to more than 70,000 users via a third-party age verification vendor.
[7]
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For Yen, that's exactly the issue. Start with a few "high-risk" services, and it doesn't stop there. "With age verification, we're on the cusp of, once and for all, requiring ID for every single person going online, for any reason, legal or not, adult or not," he said.
Age checks also mean handing over sensitive data, and as Discord already found out, that doesn't always end well. "The more sensitive data you stockpile in privately held databases, the bigger a target it becomes for criminals," Yen said, adding that leaks are more or less inevitable once that data is collected.
[9]Linux may get a hall pass from one state age-check bill, but Congress plays hall monitor
[10]House of Lords votes to ban social media for Brits under 16
[11]OpenAI will try to guess your age before ChatGPT gets spicy
[12]Denmark takes a Viking swing at VPN-enabled piracy
His bigger gripe, however, is what this does to basic access. "Age verification as is currently being proposed in country after country would mean the death of anonymity online," he added.
Privacy groups have been making similar noises, with the Open Rights Group warning that [13]mandatory age checks pose serious risks to privacy , data protection, and freedom of expression, particularly if verification systems become centralized or linked across services.
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If age checks are unavoidable, Yen argues they need to be built very differently from what's currently rolling out. That means keeping the whole process on the user's device, using facial scans instead of uploaded IDs, and discarding the data immediately after a simple yes-or-no answer on whether someone is old enough. That answer should be anonymized, sent with end-to-end encryption, and backed by open source code, he says, so people can verify that it does what it claims.
None of this is coming from a disinterested party. Proton's entire pitch is privacy-first services, so a world of mandatory ID checks is hardly good for business. Still, it's clear that age verification is no longer theoretical, and the list of services experimenting with it is growing – along with the size of the target they're painting on their own backs. ®
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[1] https://proton.me/blog/keep-age-verification-from-killing-anonymity-online
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aeqWhN3oGCl87HCmLprIZwAAAYU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/16/anthropic_claude_id_verification_persona/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/28/xbox_online_safety_act/
[5] https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/support/account/age-verification-faq/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/24/discord_drama_delays_age_verification/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aeqWhN3oGCl87HCmLprIZwAAAYU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aeqWhN3oGCl87HCmLprIZwAAAYU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/22/linux_us_state_age_verificaiton_laws/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/22/house_of_lords_votes_to_ban_under_16_socmed/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/21/openai_bets_on_age_prediction/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/15/denmark_vpn_ban/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/21/uk_social_media_ban/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aeqWhN3oGCl87HCmLprIZwAAAYU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Well, yes. That's just what we've been saying for some time.
ID
That's what big corporations "lobby" for and our politicians happily bend over backwards for a little bit of wine and steak.
For a little bit of access security services turn a blind eye.
It's all corrupt and nobody is doing their jobs tax payers pay them to do.
"Could"
Yeah ID checks "could" turn into an ID checkpoint the same way Flock and Ring cameras "could" be used as a Big Brother style surveillance network with no oversight, government spy agencies "could" tap into the central internet backbones and phone networks and archive all interesting traffic for later searching...
But surely that won't happen, right?
Re: "Could"
If that was going to happen then they would have to build massive data centres to process all this data... oh wait.
Apple joining in the game?
I may have missed it, but I have seen no article/comment on ElReg about Apple's recent introduction of age verification within their release of iOS 26.4 here in the UK.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20qwz9xzr9o
As it happened it was painless for me (credit card already on file therefore assumed >18) but given there was no forewarning and the potential for restrictions if not validated, it struck me as Apple (unsurprisingly) looking after their own interests and not necessary their captive customers.
I fear we are on a slippy slope. I wonder how long before (like a car) a nominated person will be held responsible for an internet connection (licensed node?) and everything that passes through.
Re: Apple joining in the game?
I fear we are on a slippy slope. I wonder how long before (like a car) a nominated person will be held responsible for an internet connection (licensed node?) and everything that passes through.
But won't someone think of the directorships? But you already can be held responsible, sort of. So there have been a couple of cases where people's WiFi connections were used to access CP. Which then leaves those accused in the tricky position of trying to prove a negative. LEAs may have evidence that their Internet connection was used, and it would be very difficult to prove it wasn't by you or any authorised person. Meanwhile, all your devices may be seized and join a very long backlog awaiting forensic examination and rumors may spread.
Fortunately because of those cases, LEO's are more aware that WiFi connections can be hijacked.. And it wouldn't suprise me if politicians use this to justify 'secure' digital identity authenticating all your online activity, even though that security is often just theatre.
Dark forces have the upper hand
Regardless of whether specific governments, outfits like the USA/Israeli Palantir, the would-be overlords of the WEF, and the 'owners' of so-called 'intellectual property', all much the same kind of people , devised the wheeze of hiding behind children for a pretext justifying Western, and ultimately global, age-verification requirements, the happenstance of the topic gaining traction will delight them. Those are the kind of persons, many well-known to each other through memberships of interconnected organisations and the comradeship of the Epstein club, able, in concert, to bring it about.
On several occasions, in this forum, I have argued that unrestricted use of the Internet by plebeians bodes ill for mankind's cultural ascent and for keeping a check on wild excesses of stupidity 'virally' emanating from social media (Twitter and similar); in part danger lies with naive belief in 'democracy' wherein the validity of an idea rests upon the number of people supporting it in a context where heads are counted without checking they contain cognitive functions. The worry for me rests with power being totally and irrevocably held by the most detestable people on the planet, instead of there being effort to institute more nuanced decision-taking than permitted by universal franchise democracies. Since the inception of modern broad franchise 'democracies', it has become very easy for financially powerful individuals and freemasonries to control political parties, candidacies for legislatures, and acts of government. This makes even less sense than by referring governance to dynastic rulers, acting in the name of a deity, with priesthoods, and landed gentry, to keep them in check. Seeing the quality of British royal stock since the line was handed to Hunfolk, one must be grateful that they have become employees of the Privy Council, to be hired and fired.
Drawing the threads together, one perceives that Britain's legislature, along with others, these days is manned by 'place-holders' (many unwittingly) of, at best, mediocre talent; put otherwise, what persons capable of original thought and insight would submit themselves to a career of obeying Commons procedures, voting as told by 'whips', and glad-handing constituents? Of course, the mediocrities are rewarded for obedience though pay and pensions far in excess of the recipients' worth, additional sinecures for good behaviour, opportunities for minor peculation for backbenchers with the major variety for ministers, and ridiculous 'honours' for which many MPs are wet with anxiety.
So, we may expect Britain's age-verification legislation (and that elsewhere) to be its usual dog's breakfast. No matter, the principle will have been established . The more clever, yet culturally dead, members of the extended Epstein club can implement their wishes in the West, and much elsewhere on the globe, by backdoor means. Previously in Register comments I have opined that Microsoft alone could accomplish the aim; that's not to assert such a plan as being inherent to Microsoft throughout its existence: hitherto, money alone rings its bells.
Microsoft, through cunning marketing, has established widespread global dominance for its operating system and much other core software for business. Assuming Microsoft doesn't implode as a consequence of business incompetence after its progenitors stepped back, it in conjunction with Palantir (already prominent in surveillance related activities - gaining access to much data innocently through its services to, for example, the British NHS during preparation for the latter's final dismemberment to the 'profit maximisation' private sector).
Therefore, the stage is set for, in most cases well-deserved, serfdom, but answerable to what truly is a kakistocracy. The next step shall be a cull of the unneeded. I'm persuadable on that idea, but convinced kakistocrats are up to doing it sensibly (just look at chaos in Israel).
Not the internet
> the current push for age checks risks flipping the web from anonymous by default to something closer to "show your papers" before you click.
If this starts to become too intrusive, something will be developed that circumvents these checks. I would guess that it would not be based on websites and their protocols, but would start from scratch.
It should be remembered that HTTP was not the first internet protocol. It certainly won't be the last. Who knows, the "solution" to restrictive practices might even be to revive things that already exist.
Re: Not the internet
Circumvention will become very difficult when the next step is taken: issue for general use (home and business) only dumb-terminals reliant wholly upon permitted (i.e. not blocked) cloud servers.
Re: Not the internet
That's completely impractical given that there are billions of not dumb devices already out there. Are they going to go door to door and take away our old PCs, smartphones, wifi routers, etc.?
ISPs would have to uniformly block all protocols other than HTTPS to force everyone into the age restricted space. So long as you have the ability to freely connect to a given IP address on a given port there will always be a way to build an "alternate internet".
Too bad the billionaire who owns the only (so far) worldwide satellite network is on the side of authoritarianism rather than freedom. Perhaps if things go badly and the whole internet is corrupted there will be some billionaire who pulls a Carnegie and endows a foundation to launch/maintain a satellite network that lives outside the regulations. Assuming there is a country that could be trusted to host such a thing.
Just as Keir Stasi wants it.
This is already a reality within the UK: Sony recently became the latest company to cave in and restrict any communication between users without them being verified. The least potentially invasive option, the mobile network check, should theoretically only need a yes/no answer back from the mobile network. Instead, it also checks that the user's details match what's on the account. If this were really about only age checking, there would be no need for anything to be stored or checked other than that yes/no response. This also locks out users who use fake information per service to limit the effect of inevitable data breaches.
Other communication platforms will similarly have to lock down to restrict any communication to verified users eventually, since there is never a state where MPs here will say we are safe from the evil horrors of the web. This has always been about identity, unmasking users and locking down communication. For anyone in a country reading this where it hasn't been implemented, push back NOW, because you will not be able to claim back your privacy once the door has been battered down.
It's worse than that.
Age verification can be demanded on a national basis, so it can be used to lock you out of any internet site not based in the country you are living in. And all of those can then be required to hold a govt. licence. That's how your government can 'take back control' of their (digital) borders. At the expense of us and of the net.