Reddit has begun rolling out mandatory age verification for any NSFW content, as well as for some social media functions, if the AI determines you might be under a certain age.
Another good day to be on Lemmy… until the surveillance capitalist tech overlords lobby enough to get their great firewall of the West, anyway.
Further reading:
- https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/50368431806484-European-Union-Digital-Services-Act-DSA
- https://cybernews.com/security/eu-age-verification-app-hack/
- https://piunikaweb.com/2026/02/19/persona-age-verification-surveillance-allegations/
- https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/23595536875796-Digital-Services-Act-DSA-Information-for-EU-users
A day may come when I upload my ID, and verify my identity online, but it is not this day.
If you’re in the EU, it might come sooner than you think: https://leminal.space/post/37117472
I’m in the US. Honestly, if things keep going like this here, in Canada, and in the EU, I might have to move to Norway or Switzerland or something.
Regarding Switzerland: https://www.privately.eu/post/swiss-safetytech-setting-the-standard-in-privacy-first-age-estimation-technology-greatly-reducing-the-need-for-id-checks
I think the only way we’re getting out of this is if people start protesting to their representatives way louder and in way greater numbers.
For anybody reading in the EU, consider emailing one of your representatives and demand they undo this age verification surveillance stuff: https://fightchatcontrol.eu/#delegates (Site is unrelated, it just happens to have a list of representatives.)
For anybody in the US, find your representatives here: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
Will they even listen to us?
Hmm. They will. They’ll listen through all of our internet-enabled devices with microphones.
I feel very hopeless about this.
If you haven’t contacted a representative yet, I suggest you do it. After that, it’s time to continue with the hopelessness 😵💫 relatable for sure…
I agree that is our best hope.
There is not a long term tech solution for a political problem. Best we can do is kick the can down the road. This has to be solved politically.