Five EU States To Test Age Verification App To Protect Children (reuters.com)
- Reference: 0178376716
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/25/07/14/1945242/five-eu-states-to-test-age-verification-app-to-protect-children
- Source link: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/five-eu-states-test-age-verification-app-protect-children-2025-07-14/
> The setup for the age verification app is built on the same technical specifications as the European Digital Identity Wallet which will be rolled out next year. The five countries can customize the model according to their requirements, integrate into a national app or keep it separately. The landmark legislation, which became applicable last year, requires Alphabet's Google, Meta, ByteDance's TikTok and other online companies to do more to tackle illegal and harmful online content. EU regulators said the new guidelines would help online platforms to tackle addictive design, cyberbullying, harmful content and unwanted contact from strangers.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/five-eu-states-test-age-verification-app-protect-children-2025-07-14/
None of these people are so stupid (Score:5, Informative)
That they think for a second that this will have any effect on children's access to pornography. It will however allow them to track what their entire population does on the internet.
It always amazes me that the same crowd of parents who will scream at the top of their lungs if the government tells them to vaccinate their kids or hell have their kids use mouthwash will on a dime demand that the government seize control of all telecommunications to prevent Junior from looking at a pair of tits.
Puritanicalism sucks.
Re:None of these people are so stupid (Score:4, Funny)
> That they think for a second that this will have any effect on children's access to pornography.
It may be ineffectual. But I think we can all agree that exposing children to porn gives them unrealistic ideas of how fast a plumber will come to your house.
Re: (Score:2)
> It will however allow them to track what their entire population does on the internet.
Exactly! And like in Canada with debanking protesters against 2 years of COVID lockdowns, because it is tied to government ID they will be able to prevent individuals from age verifying themselves, likely effectively blocking them from using any social media.
Re: (Score:3)
> Puritanicalism sucks.
I totally accept the desire to feather child experience into adult experience. Personally I think violence and anti-social behavior and making a fetish of celebrity worship is far more harmful than nudity and related activities but that's just my opinion.
What really gets me is that this harms adults. Showing your ID at a beer store doesn't. Showing your ID at a dildo store doesn't. Showing your ID to get into a bar doesn't. Showing your ID to an officer when you're driving doesn't.
What's the point
Re: (Score:2)
> What really gets me is that this harms adults. Showing your ID at a beer store doesn't. Showing your ID at a dildo store doesn't. Showing your ID to get into a bar doesn't. Showing your ID to an officer when you're driving doesn't.
I wouldn't be so sure of that. A lot of these places have cameras and many officers even have body cams. It's just a tiny step to archive everything, plugin OCR, facial recognition and save everything in a database.
Some stores will even forbid you access to the store because their facial recognition cameras have identified you as a thief according to the databases they use.
UK is in the game, too. (Score:2)
Our rules are set to be enforced from 25 July.
No problem with age verification but... (Score:4, Interesting)
I do not agree with the responsibility for verification to be deferred to external, private companies.
Sending your photo IDs and/or face scans to private companies is an absolutely dumbfuck idea.
Any identity verification system should be run by the government.
Re: No problem with age verification but... (Score:2)
Quite the opposite. They already have our data and they don't need to profit from it like private companies do.
IMHO, those concerned about the government tracking them need to realise that the government doesn't really give a crap what sort of porn you're into.
Re: (Score:2)
The government cared about it when it was Bill Clinton.
Re: (Score:2)
We're talking about the EU here, not the USA. Huge difference.
Re: No problem with age verification but... (Score:2)
You spelled George W. Bush wrong.
Re: (Score:2)
Europe isn't immune to rising right wing governments that absolutely care about what porn you're into because persecuting LGBT people is one of their top priorities.
Re: (Score:2)
> Any identity verification system should be run by the government.
No private corporation has ever sent men with guns to my house in the middle of the night to pound on my door.
My government has.
Re: (Score:2)
No private corporation has ever sent men with guns to my house in the middle of the night to pound on my door.
[1]Maybe not your door. [polygon.com]
[1] https://www.polygon.com/23695923/mtg-aftermath-pinkerton-raid-leaked-cards
Re: (Score:2)
If private companies weren't involved and profiting this wouldn't be happening. A huge part of the reason these stupid fucking things exist is that it's a big pork project for some private company linked to somebody. Some nepo baby is going to get very rich at our expense.
And a while later ... (Score:2)
... the app becomes mandatory for everybody and will also block unwanted political speech and any statement the government does not like.
This has zero chance to make it past the EU court of justice.
Won't some one please think of the children?! (Score:2)
I don't want to have to make a second internet that is centrally managed, connected to schools, and a bit more regulated on its content and purpose.
It will work about as well as it did in the past (Score:2)
Kids will still have access just like in the past and it won't be the tame stuff they are looking at now.
I've lost hope for the human race, we don't care to even see what is going on around us.
If parents can't protect kids then I can assure you the law and the government certainly will not no matter what law they pass.
Re: (Score:2)
> this will give permanent unchangeable identifiers to every participant
TFA doesn't say that.
There's no technical reason the identifiers need to be unchangeable.
The app could be designed to issue a different confirmation code for each transaction.
Re: (Score:2)
Somewhere there has to be a master record that keeps track of your identity as a single entry in a database. There's just no other way to do it. the identity verification system needs to know who you are and the way they know that is you send your data in and they keep it on file.
Sooner or later that database is going to leak and when it does it's going to be a disaster like Ashley madison. In particular a bunch of people who go to gay porn sites are going to commit suicide. Or possibly be murdered.
Re: (Score:1)
Now you understand what Identity Security and zero trust architecture REALLY is all about.