EU parliament accepted a last minute amendment, mandating age verification for pornographic (whatever that is) content online, punishable with up to one year prison sentence.
This was rolled into a directive concerning CSAM. Because adults accessing porn need to be de-anonymised to avoid child exploitation?
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I just can‘t wrap my head around, how on one hand the EU is protecting its citizen with strong consumer protection laws, strong data security laws and overall mostly good and logical decitions and on the other hand there is this…
I think the overarching theme is that the EU wants more and more power and control.
In the case you describe: it’s by taking away freedom from software providers. In the case of this law, it’s by taking away freedom from their citizens.
Less agency and freedom for others, more control for and subjugation to them, is what motivates both - Fun when they do it to others, less fun now they’re doing it to you too.
Especially considering the backhanded way this amendmend was last-minute shoehorned onto unrelated legislation. They know it’s against general will and good.
“Do you want children to be exploited? No? Then do as I say”
I think the joining theme is that the EU wants more and more power and control.
Ofc. People who push this are in composition 10% moral crusaders and 90% those afraid for their own power and status quo in the coming years. With these pushes toward age verification and message scanning; It’s not just they want to scan everything and watch everybody, they want to test the waters and people to to think they are always being watched and self censor and not do anything against powers that be. They know better than anybody how shaky things have gotten in Europe and how unpopular they really are. It’s pure attempt at population control.
The only problem is that with current people in power they really can’t help themselves, but to make things worse for the average people. So the fire will rise anyway.
In the book The Every Dave Eggers they clearly describe this conception…
In 2023 I was thinking how stupid puritan the Texan politician were. The EU commission and parliament had different ideas.
Turns out the incumbents in EU are very scared as politicians from outside the traditional political families are getting popular votes. And instead of looking into to mirror as to why that is happening, they blame “the internet” and go authoritarian.
Thus joining in the creation of the machinery for mass surveillance and supression.
SEX. Guys I did it, now Lemmy needs age verification.
Yes, put your webcam on, say your full name and hold up your ID card and the Newspaper from today, please.
Please complete the following 25,000 long division problems as proof of work to access your content.
Reading the attached article, this seems to be a directive, rather than a law. We don’t know what shape the law will take, or whether it will actually be implemented… No?
Please correct me if I’m wrong. Not too familiar with this stuff.
There’s still time to push back, I would guess.
Yes it’s a directive. Currently it passed the EU commission (it’s their proposal) and parliament. It still needs to pass council.
After that, each member country of the EU must implement it in their respective country laws.
It’s already questionable if it becomes a law, due to several security and privacy concerns. It will be a search of tecnical solutions which respect the EU privacy law, which isn’t so easy, wil say, it will not be in near dates until it is generally implrmented, depending also on each country. We’ll see. I asked Andi:
The European Commission is developing an age verification app, set to launch in July 2025, that will allow EU users to prove they are old enough to access age-restricted online content without revealing personal information[1][2]. The app, known as the “mini-wallet,” is built on the same technical specifications as the European Digital Identity Wallets planned for 2026[3].
Key features of the age verification solution include:
- Privacy-preserving verification using Zero Knowledge Proofs (though implementation remains optional)[1:1]
- Four verification methods: national eID schemes, physical ID cards, institutional verification (banks/notaries), and third-party apps[1:2]
- Open-source implementation with customization options for Member States[4]
- Integration with the EU Digital Identity Wallet framework[3:1]
However, critics highlight potential accessibility issues, noting that marginalized groups like refugees, unhoused people, and those without government IDs may be excluded[1:3]. The Electronic Frontier Foundation also warns about privacy risks and the need for stronger regulations on which services can request age verification[1:4].
The initiative supports compliance with the Digital Services Act, which requires online platforms to implement robust age verification policies[2:1]. The Commission has already begun enforcement, launching investigations into four adult content websites in May 2025 over inadequate age verification measures[5].
EFF - Age Verification in the European Union: The Commission’s Age Verification App ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
European Commission - Call for tenders: Development, consultancy and support for an age verification solution ↩︎ ↩︎
European Commission - The EU approach to age verification ↩︎ ↩︎
PYMNTS - EU to Launch Age Verification App for Online Use in July ↩︎
This is misleading. It will keep your information private from the website you’re accessing (supposedly), but the EU authorities will know full well which websites you’re visiting and surveilling.
And of course, they will apply the non-compliance claims to absolutely anything they want to censor.
I know very well that it is known which pages I visit, when authorities pretend it.
I’m normally not a friend of AI, but despite of this I use Andisearch as my main search engine since almost 3 years, because with it, I don’t have even the need to access most of the pages, I can read these in the own reader mode in the search results and summarize the content, sandboxed and with random proxie. The search concepts don’t even appears in the browser history only that I searched with Andi, but not what, I can watch YT videos also direct in the search results. It’s one of the most private search engine which I know, and I know almost all also thanks to an user. Free, no limits, no logs, no ads, no cookies, anonymous, own independent LLM.
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Are there any issues with a system where the website in question (let’s say, a porn site) doesn’t get your ID, but just a confirmation from your government that yes, you are of age?
It has a name but I can’t find it right now.But it would protect your privacy from their website you’re visiting, and the website can uphold the rules.It’s called double blind: https://www.biometricupdate.com/202504/double-blind-age-assurance-requirement-for-porn-sites-takes-effect-in-france
Yes. Anyone that can request both the logs of this third party and the website fully deanonymises the users.
Who could have this access? The same people that last minute added this amendment to unrelated legislation. It’s even easier this way: they have to strongarm only a few “age verification providers”, then follow the tokens.
Additionally, the amendment is a stepping stone to outlaw other privacy techniques such as VPNs.
Foreign websites still don’t comply? We have no choice but to build the great firewall of EU. For the children.
No way I’d trust the government to just throw away that information.
The same government that last minuted attached this amendment to an unrelated directive asks you to trust them with your most private information. 🙄
the problem is that people are being verifiably linked to their ‘adult’ preferences. this is data that is being generated, in bad faith, and handled by multiple parties. your legal identity should not need to be tied to this information. this information can be used against you both now and in the future.
we’ve already seen in the US where there is a push for information about gender and basic sexual education being labelled as ‘adult’. when i was in school, information about countries like Cuba, Afghanistan or China was considered ‘too mature’ (or marked as ‘terrorism-related’ by the school firewall) for children; i could see this thus extending to require age verification before you can access ‘subversive’ information, on the basis of ‘protecting children’ from ‘political extremism’.
Double blind means that the age provider doesn’t know why your age is requested, and the service (website) doesn’t know you, they only know that the age provider says “yes” or “no”.
How does one “follow the tokens” then?
How does one “follow the tokens” then?
We don’t know what they do with the information, as it’s closed source.
Assuming it’s based on this EU prototype:
They don’t know why it was requested, but do know who, where and when.
So they gather the logs of A, the token provider. Is the target present? They have his token. They also see where and when the token was used. Did you have a fun time yesterday evening, on your phone at home, on websites B, C and D?
Next up, if they want even more detail, gather the logs of B, look for the token. That way they can pinpoint the exact search terms, categories, watch time, etc
In summary: centralizing the de-anonymisation this way makes mass surveillance easier than if it were decentralized, in sometimes foreign jurisdictions.
It also shifts the conversation away from the best solution: don’t deanonymise in the first place.
the provider knows who’s asking because of the IP address and API key of the requester. if it uses a form with a redirect, they even know your IP and what page you were on, tied to your legal identity. if the provider makes any API requests to a government registry, now that knows the when, the how, and (categorically) the what. short of a statement of ‘no logs’ and an audit to confirm as such, there is definitely logs. hackers love this information. data brokers love this information.
the problem is not the service knowing. it’s anyone knowing. the provider deänonymised you the moment you gave your id. the precise implementation details are important here.
France is getting harder on online porn.
😏
I’m sure the csam websites easily findable on twitter will fully adhere to this.
This’ll probably be different from the Online Safety Act since DSA already differenciates centralized and community-based moderation.
