- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
Full title: EU’s new social media child protection rules to require all social media accounts to produce state ID - Leaked documents suggest that some existing accounts will also be subject to identification checks
Eliminating online privacy has always been framed as “protecting children” and it’s always been 100% about surveillance
I mean, why are they not using these resources to tackle child poverty, prosecute the epstein list or the panama papers if they want to help children so fucking badly?
Bingo!
Can they just stop pretending these laws are not about eroding privacy and be honest for ounce.
Imperial units detected
If you give these people 25.4 millimetres they’ll take 1.6 kilometres.
even taking the pretense at face value, this would just be adults damning kids who are queer, autistic and/or in abusive households/communities (among others) and patting themselves on the back
always scrambling to “protect” kids without ever considering their needs or why they engage in the behavior they do at all
(assuming they’re not just seen as defective goods to be either “corrected” or disposed of, of course)
EU’s new social media
child protectionstate surveillance rules to require all social media accounts to produce state IDFTFY
How else is Mrs. von der Leyen supposed to sue people that speak badly about EU politicians?
Well if everyone’s identity is stolen then I guess your identity will mean nothing.
That stuff would 100% get leaked and ruin many lives. Hell it would ruin lives even if only authorized authorities have access to it because some perverted cops or politicians will abuse it to stalk women and children. They‘re already doing it but getting a live feed of someone’s online activity by typing in a single number makes it so much more convenient for bad actors. And it would also get leaked on top of it.
This will just push the actual criminals further underground, while everyone else gets spied on. lose-lose.
Ironically, kids might still get around the new restriction by using a virtual private network (VPN) connection, which virtually positions the computer in another country, at the time of signing up.
This is just going to be one long pointless game of whackamole and as effective as Prohibition was in the US.
The US claim they are going after the VPN companies now too. Of course it could be all lies and deflection like most things they say now.
That’s nonsense, VPN is tool needed to run companies. Even if they make VPNs business only, people will just register fake businesses
It’s not just about business use, but citizen access to content. I looked it up and this is the stage it’s at now https://gizmodo.com/the-first-us-law-targeting-vpn-use-takes-effect-september-3-heres-what-happen-2000805001
The new law is narrow. VPN companies say they can’t do it. Fines for businesses that don’t are real. It’s all a little strange.
Very few people will set up their own business or technical venture, though. That’s enough to have a chilling effect.
Ursula von der Leyen, making the internet progressively worse year by year. Cookie banners, GDPR consent dialogs, and now ID verification. Please just retire and take up a different hobby, like knitting.
Neither Cookie banners nor GDPR consent dialogs need to be bad. They are only bad because companies try to do their shit. It’s companies not regulation that make Cookie banners and GDPR consent dialogs bad.
That said, the id-verification stuff is just pure awful for privacy concerns.
Bullshit. They are bad because EU legislation is written by incompetent and/or corrupt (pick one) morons and accordingly full of loopholes. It would have been trivial to order web sites to respect browser ‘do not track’ settings.
I’m always ready for some ursula blaming but the first two are really not the fault of the law. majority of the companies “comply” maliciously, often also illegally, to make people hate privacy laws
My freedom shouldn’t be implied cause some parent can’t use a parental control which is already mandatory in the eu. Your kids isn’t my responsability.
It s unreal that the “free world” want my id simply to go online.
Also same shit as rgpd. Only bigger website and corporation can afford putting million toward implementing thoses policiesbwhile all other won’t bother and just cut acces to be in compliance.
I hate how effective the whole “think of the children” rhetoric is. Every person I talked to about this irl is either indifferent or even in support because they want children protected and they “don’t do anything they need to hide” anyway so they don’t mind presenting an ID… I agree children should not be on social media, but it’s kinda just the parent’s responsibility to not let them near it and the tools are out there. Plus let’s not pretend kids aren’t smart enough to figure out there’s alternatives…
How is your freedom reduced tho, an app produces a yes or no, how is that a reduction of freedom. Search for zero-knowledge proof and the techniques behind it
Sources for ZKP: https://ageverification.dev/av-doc-technical-specification/docs/annexes/annex-B/annex-B-zkp/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_Curve_Digital_Signature_Algorithm Vulnerabilities: https://www.encryptionconsulting.com/education-center/what-is-ecdsa/ [Api2025] Rutchathon Chairattana-Apirom, Franklin Harding, Anna Lysyanskaya, and Stefano Tessaro, “Server-Aided Anonymous Credentials,” available at https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/513, 2025I choose what runs on my computer. I already kicked out SystemD for “an optional age field” so “an app that produces yes or no” can go straight up the author’s ass.
Great, this might actually kill centralized social media in a long run. Future generations will grow up on decentralized web because it will be the only one they can access.
Yeah, no.
Honestly? State ID is better than the current solution which is giving Thiel-affiliated companies photo and other data.
Ideally I’d rather have a governments provided digital ID that’s more secure and just gives the company limited metadata instead of full ID info provided from gov’t to company. Put in rules requiring warrants or subpoenas for lookups.
Who do you think is checking those ids? Hint: it’s not the government, it’s some 3rd party company, always.
With cryptographic systems like the EU uses, it must go through the government because a 3rd party can’t implement that verification/response pattern without access to the proper gov’t cryptographic secrets.
EU being shitty as always.










