EFF – We Built You a Resource Hub to Fight Back. “Age verification laws are proliferating fast across the United States and around the world, creating a dangerous and confusing tangle of rules about what we’re all allowed to see and do online. Though these mandates claim to protect children, in practice they create harmful censorship and surveillance regimes that put everyone—adults and young people alike—at risk. The term “age verification” is colloquially used to describe a wide range of age assurance technologies, from age verification systems that force you to upload government ID, to age estimation tools that scan your face, to systems that infer your age by making you share personal data. While different laws call for different methods, one thing remains constant: every method out there collects your sensitive, personal information and creates barriers to accessing the internet. We refer to all of these requirements as age verification, age assurance, or age-gating. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by this onslaught of laws and the invasive technologies behind them, you’re not alone. It’s a lot. But understanding how these mandates work and who they harm is critical to keeping yourself and your loved ones safe online. Age verification is lurking around every corner these days, so we must fight back to protect the internet that we know and love.

• That’s why today, we’re launching EFF’s Age Verification Resource Hub (EFF.org/Age): a one-stop shop to understand what these laws actually do, what’s at stake, why EFF opposes all forms of age verification, how to protect yourself, and how to join the fight for a free, open, private, and yes—safe—internet…”
• See also via Reddit – We’re EFF and we’re fighting to defend your privacy from the global onslaught of invasive age verification mandates. EFF is building a movement to fight back against online age-gating mandates, and we need your help! We’ve recently published our Age Verification Resource Hub at EFF.org/Age, and we’ll be here in r/privacy from 12-5pm PT on Monday (12/15), Tuesday (12/16), and Wednesday (12/17) to answer your questions about online age verification. So ask us anything about how age verification works, who it harms, what’s at stake, whether it’s legal, and how to fight back against these invasive censorship and surveillance mandates. Verification: https://bsky.app/profile/eff.org/post/3m7qa2novlo2x