Why Mandatory Age Verification Keeps Us All Less Safe

This EFF talk argues that mandatory age verification harms everyone, not only the people it targets. The speaker points to a vendor that promoted a verification library as a solved problem before it was embedded in any real app. A reviewer in the EU later found the zero-knowledge proof component still missing from the implementation. The lesson is that officials and the public should check what is actually built, since promises about protecting kids often fall apart in deployment.

The middle of the talk focuses on children. The speaker says bans can cut young people off from the people and resources that help them, including families and support services, and that exploited or isolated teens often need someone to tell. Blanket bans also leave kids unprepared when they gain access at 16, without media literacy or private-messaging skills. Engagement-driven features such as behavioral advertising and microtransactions are presented as the mechanisms worth regulating. Shared household devices raise further questions, and the speaker notes that a tool to tell which person is using a device would amount to a strong surveillance tool.

The closing section is practical. The speaker says age verification laws are not inevitable and cites the UK government's rollback of its digital identity scheme as evidence that pressure works. Listeners are urged to contact representatives, attend local hearings, organize, and oppose VPN bans. The speaker also says there is no quick fix for the social problems behind these harms.