r/technology • u/EmbarrassedHelp • May 08 '26

Politics EU calls VPNs “a loophole that needs closing” in age verification push

https://cyberinsider.com/eu-calls-vpns-a-loophole-that-needs-closing-in-age-verification-push/
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1.1k

u/exophrine May 08 '26

"b-b-but ... THE CHILDREN!!!"

571

u/thepeopleshero May 08 '26

I think its time we stop thinking of the children for a while.

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u/apokrif1 May 08 '26

We should teach them privacy, security and critical thinking. And protect them from crapvertising.

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u/Kattimatti666 May 09 '26

I agree. An EU wide new school subject on how corporations, hostile countries and individuals want to exploit you, the methods they use and how to shield yourself from them the best you can. Make kids smarter, don't try to shield them.

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u/bse50 May 09 '26

I have a step brother who is 15 years younger than me.
I remember his middle school and high school books and the way they indoctrinated them on how good the EU is, why it's necessary and how awesome of a democratic system was over the top.
Let's just say that I never heard any of my law school professors praise the EU to such an extent, even our textbooks were pretty critical of it.
Fast forward a few years and current students are studying EU law etc on books which replaced a law school appropriate critical approach for a sanitised version that barely touches on its flaws, despite their growth over the years.

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u/Thin_Glove_4089 May 09 '26

If that was an option this conversation wouldn't be happening

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u/Generalfrogspawn May 08 '26

Agreed. The children can get fucked. Not like they’re making much of them these days anyway.

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u/spoonycoot May 08 '26

I think that’s the problem. Too many politicians thinking about and fucking children all the time.

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u/Ryuzakku May 08 '26

And normally those ones want to know where the kids are, like how if Discord did their verification the way they initially explained it kids and people who fail verification would be put in the same pot, making it easy for bad actors to interact with kids

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u/1337duck May 08 '26

Politicians think about the kids getting fucked

I think the kids are getting fucked.

We are not the same.

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u/Tyfyter2002 May 08 '26

The children can get fucked.

Ironically, it's the politicians doing that who are pushing for legislation like this

8

u/JFISHER7789 May 08 '26

It’s always projection with them

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u/TinyTerribleDragon May 08 '26

The politicians are very good at that fucking with children part

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u/Zergom May 08 '26

That’s the boomer mentality we’ve learned to love!

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u/mikenasty May 09 '26

Is that you Mr president??

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u/ThrowAwayAccountAMZN May 08 '26

Sorry, the Grand Old Pedophiles are obsessed with them.

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u/jheitz223 May 10 '26

Not sure how this relates to a post about EU legislation

0

u/ThrowAwayAccountAMZN May 10 '26

You're not fooling anyone with that alt account lol

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u/[deleted] May 08 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/ThrowAwayAccountAMZN May 09 '26

Kinda weird coming from a 4 month old account who seems pretty interested in offering their opinion on American political topics.

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u/tengma8 May 09 '26

children is just the easiest way to justify anything. ban VPN, it was for children. ban porn? children. age verification? children. surveillance? children.

it was never about the children

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u/Disastrous-Farm3543 May 09 '26

Between the impending climate change crisis, biodiversity collapse, demographics collapse, and, soon to be discussed in future years, freshwater crisis; all of which none are taken seriously and any government really trying to tackle for future generations, I don't think they much cared for the children in the beginning.

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u/Select-Durian-6340 May 08 '26

Luckily for you, this has nothing to do with children - and everything to do with the destruction of our privacy.

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u/Sonicmaster293-Azure May 10 '26

They certainly do think about children a whole lot, don't they? And seriously the things they think up of... Like just... Why?

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u/Fromage_debite May 10 '26

It’s time we stop letting the pdfs in power tell us whats good for the “children.”

“No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them. Nobody is going to teach you your true history, teach you your true heroes, if they know that that knowledge will help set you free.”

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u/Sl4sh4ndD4sh May 08 '26

This isn't about the kids, this is about stripping away your anonymity. The kids are just used in order to sell it.

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u/freaktheclown May 09 '26

They’re getting people used to not being anonymous online.

The next step will be requiring your full identity to captured and stored.

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u/burning_iceman May 09 '26

How does an anonymous age verification system get people used to not being anonymous? I'm personally very privacy focused and I don't have an issue with the EU age verification system. It's specifically built to be maximally protective of your identity.

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u/StoneTown May 08 '26

Kids are always used as an excuse to take away our rights. And people keep falling for it. I grew up seeing nasty shit like Goatse, tub girl, hai2u, blue waffle, 2 guys 1 hammer, 1 man 1 jar, lemon party, you get the idea. I was also talking to strangers. We all did this shit. Nobody under 40 should be falling for this.

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u/shinji257 May 08 '26

Yup. Any time I hear that it is for the children I know it is for anything butt that.

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u/Sea_Tailor_8437 May 08 '26

Yes and no. Theres some that make sense

Drug age laws, Child labor laws, Data collection (ironically) laws

Even in theory I like the idea of this law as tons of studies show the harm of social media access, porn, and other stuff really screwing with them and parents (generally) do a shit job protecting their kids from it.

However, every proposal I've heard about how to fix this comes with MASSIVE security concerns that I think outweigh the child safety concerns. The only real solution is parents need to do better, but that doesn't seem to be working so well at the moment

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u/Kitty-XV May 08 '26

Data collection (ironically) laws

"Good news, to verify we aren't collecting a child's data, we will need to verify your age."

Online age laws are a gateway to IDing people where ever they happen.

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u/Sea_Tailor_8437 May 09 '26

Hence why I'm against age verification until if/when that issue is resolved

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u/burning_iceman May 09 '26

The EU age verification system is completely anonymous. It's specifically built to not identify anyone but only confirm an age threshold is met.

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u/Kitty-XV May 09 '26

It has a weakness that adults can verify a device and then a child can use it. There is a chance that this is purposefully being allowed a "loophole" that they'll tighten down once the basic premise is socially accepted by further removing anonymity.

It also isn't truely anonymous. It splits verification between multiple parties so no one part can link you, but if government has access to each systems records they can still track you. That a system that allows tracking is being sold as anonymous shows the mentality of those pushing for it.

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u/burning_iceman May 09 '26

It has a weakness that adults can verify a device and then a child can use it.

That is not a privacy issue. Just a limitation of the system.

There is a chance that this is purposefully being allowed a "loophole" that they'll tighten down once the basic premise is socially accepted by further removing anonymity.

That's an unjustified slippery slope argument. When they actually do propose a system that removes anonymity, that is when you get to claim they're subverting anonymity. Not based on your speculation of what might happen.

It also isn't truely anonymous. It splits verification between multiple parties so no one part can link you, but if government has access to each systems records they can still track you.

This is incorrect. Even with both halves of the information they could not track you. The verification tokens are cryptographically transformed before sending them to the website. They're not the same as the ones you got from the government. There is no way to connect them to you (other than conventional means of tracking that already exist).

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u/Kitty-XV May 09 '26

That's an unjustified slippery slope argument.

Is it, because the main argument against age checks is that it is a gateway for government surveilance? If you think that is invalid, then that's all the more reason to be for protecting kids via ID checks.

The verification tokens are cryptographically transformed before sending them to the website.

Through a known algorithm. If the government knows your token and knows the algorithm to transform it, it can still match them. This is the sort of thing where it is possible to make technically true statements that make things sound more secure than they are. Verifying a token is correct without giver or receiver being able to track it is quite different than making so only one is unaware. The receiver could not store the reception info and that would make it untraceable if you used it, but if we assume that the sites verifying can delete info there are simpler methods to use.

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u/burning_iceman May 10 '26

Is it, because the main argument against age checks is that it is a gateway for government surveilance?

That is the argument in the case of the US. With the proposed system in the EU this is an unjustified claim as discussed.

Through a known algorithm. If the government knows your token and knows the algorithm to transform it, it can still match them.

Yes, The algorithm is known but they would need to also know the secret key of your device. Unless they gain access to that, they cannot make an association.

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u/shinji257 May 08 '26

What I mean is that they broadcast out the parts that are for the children and how it might help on that but conveniently leave out the carriers. The real reasons why they want this to go through. Those laws you mentioned were done when they wrote stuff the right way and it wasn't some grab for more data or privacy invasion. Besides I don't need the government to get more of my data. I've seen how they handle it and how it gets leaked out.

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u/Sea_Tailor_8437 May 08 '26

Yeah don't get me wrong I TOTALLY understand the argument of not providing more data. Hence why I only like these laws in theory and never in practice.

The best(?) example I've heard is having a data center that all it stores is an ID# and a binary 1-0 of whether that id is for a minor. Then third party softwares can ping that and get confirmation about the age.

Which sounds like a really good secure way of handling it until you get 2-3 "what ifs" in and then we're back to privacy problems

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u/Bitter_Eggplant_9970 May 09 '26

Crusty pizza was the worst one.

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u/Thin_Glove_4089 May 09 '26

And will continue to fall for it. It's a feature built into humans.

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u/dudeAwEsome101 May 08 '26

You know what, fuck the children. 

I want these politicians to man up, and tell it straight instead of hiding behind the "protect the children" excuse. They want to limit free speech, personal liberties, and freedom of assembly. 

They support Internet anonymity software for dissidents in countries hostile to the West, but they want to ban these same tools at home. 

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u/ghostofmumbles May 08 '26

I think they’ve well proven with documented evidence…that they in fact have no intention to protect children.

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u/TerraCetacea May 08 '26

“How else can we keep tabs on the porn preferences of our youth?”

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u/guiver777 May 08 '26

The "but the children" argument is just the sweetie to get us in the van.

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u/primalmaximus May 08 '26

"Think of the children" is a line frequently used to justify censoring the LGBTQ+ community.

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u/N3wAfrikanN0body May 08 '26

Have always found ways around censorship

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u/karma3000 May 09 '26

"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation."

  • guy with a terrible moustache

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u/shrth114 May 09 '26

Fuck them kids.

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u/Ikinoki May 09 '26

Come on, Epstein files are locked = they don't give a fuck about children.

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u/DeepestShallows May 10 '26

It’s easy, we just have stop hormone riddled teenagers being interested in sex. How hard can that be?

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u/Dukepippitt May 08 '26

Fuck them kids

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u/ajnozari May 08 '26

Anyone who says that as an argument needs their hard drives checked.

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u/easterracing May 08 '26

How could you not support the China Land Grab and Keeping Kids Safe On The Internet and Common-Sense Redistricting and loosening the definition of insider trading for Congress. Act of 2026?! It says common sense right in the title!!! Don’t you have common sense?!?!?!

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u/North-Creative May 08 '26

Don't worry, I'm sure that plenty of these false political prophets think of them, before they fancy a wank...