Age verification is spreading like cancer.

oatrapado@mastodon.social

@Tutanota we are ready to take hands back on old nokias xD

d4v@mastodon.social

@Tutanota, wow! I’ll instantly delete anything requesting my ID. If you need my verification, please do it through government apps and don’t share my ID with anyone. Something where only a flag like “adult: yes/no” will be exchanged with third parties. But even with something like that I'm against it 100%

tonimassari@mastodon.social

@Tutanota Hurrah!! Excellent news!! I don’t want young men inducted into pornography and sexual abuse of minors! And I don't want young women inducted into the belief that that kind of abuse is normal! I would like to see high costs for ALL pornography, and the obligation to REGISTER to allow Authorities to verify whether a registered user is guilty of sexual criminal behaviour and abuse!
Maybe YOU like it, and maybe YOU like little children being targeted, but most of us do NOT!

fdrc_ff@www.foxyhole.io

@ToniMassari@mastodon.social @Tutanota@mastodon.social the trick is exactly that there are indeed good reasons for regulating the exposition of the internet to children and minors, which btw doesn’t just apply to porn. The bad news is that age verification for porn is a dangerous back door for introducing age verification for literally everything, which also means having true ID exposed. That scenario, in a time in which dictatorships and fascism are raising, is extremely dangerous for everyone

roohafzaluvr@mastodon.social

@ToniMassari @Tutanota next thing you know is social media getting ID-walled for "protecting the children" and the moment you post a dissident opinion someone knocks on your door...

nocci@punk.cyber77.de

@Tutanota@mastodon.social

Folks... I don't know who was responsible for the Martin Niemöller allegory.

That's really inappropriate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_They_Came

kikebenlloch@mastodon.social

@roohafzaluvr @ToniMassari @Tutanota I mean, it's not like there's a modern day Gestapo disappearing people as they wish, is it?
https://www.404media.co/elite-the-palantir-app-ice-uses-to-find-neighborhoods-to-raid/

roohafzaluvr@mastodon.social

@kikebenlloch @ToniMassari @Tutanota its sickening. imagine a bunch of brainless, big men with guns dragging you out of your home for nothing. there's absolutely nothing we can do about it.

kikebenlloch@mastodon.social

@roohafzaluvr @ToniMassari @Tutanota Exactly, and those thugs and the fascists who pay them are going to use absolutely every tool they can reach to keep smashing whomever they feel like, be it inmigrants, activists, journalists, lgtbi community, etc. That's why age verification is a trap.

jathanasiou@mastodon.social

@ToniMassari @Tutanota Monitoring the internet access of minors can be easily achieved by enabling parents to do so eg via government backed online tutorials and mandatory features like no-data SIM cards and modem parental controls for Internet service providers.

Asking for an ID to be shared every time someone visits an adult website is both ineffective and overly controlling. Not to mention UK politicians have already admitted it's also about controlling adults, not just children.

art_histories@mastodon.social

@superboom12s @Tutanota Until Elon Musk with hishateful, lying, kiddy-porn-site isn't banned I will never believe that it is for "the protection of our children". Because protection of children means that social media would be regulated and providers would be held accountable for the damage they do by spreading lies, misinformation, and hate.

jathanasiou@mastodon.social

@nocci @Tutanota Why is it inappropriate..? Genuine question.

The similarity seems intentional to highlight that forms of control like this lead to government overreach and authoritarianism or even fascism.

nocci@punk.cyber77.de

@jathanasiou@mastodon.social

The issue is that Niemöller's poem specifically addresses the Holocaust and Nazi persecution - the systematic murder of millions. Using it for age verification, no matter how concerning those policies are, trivializes the Shoah.

Age verification absolutely raises serious privacy and surveillance concerns that deserve strong opposition. But we can make that case without invoking genocide. The slippery slope to authoritarianism exists, but comparing a digital rights issue to the Holocaust weakens both arguments.

There might be plenty of other powerful ways to criticize age verification laws.

@Tutanota@mastodon.social

jathanasiou@mastodon.social

@nocci @Tutanota

I appreciate the well-put reply but I have to say I humbly and respectfully disagree with the "trivializing of genocide" angle.

Didn't genocide and fascism start with control? ID Checks and marks on people's arms, and monitoring and "removal" of opinions different to the state's? First peacefully, with some half-reasonable excuse "immigrants/<others> threaten our quality-of-life" and then violent suppression.

1/2

kgmadee2@mathstodon.xyz

@nocci @Tutanota absolutely not. While this is about the logistics side of it, the abductions and killing are already carried out in e.g. the US (see up this thread!)

jathanasiou@mastodon.social

@nocci @Tutanota

The web is too big in 2026. Controlling it is not much different to controlling what goes on in the streets.

We've already heard rumors of the UK government using these "web ID checks" to censor wikipedia and news/posts regarding #Palestine and #israel

This IS how it starts, it's just on the digital space now.

2/2

nocci@punk.cyber77.de

@jathanasiou@mastodon.social
I think we agree on the substance: digital surveillance infrastructure DOES enable authoritarianism, and we're seeing it happen with the UK law. Your concerns about control mechanisms have merit.

Where I'd still push back: Niemöller's poem carries specific weight because it's about genocide. We can call out authoritarian patterns—ID checks, surveillance, censorship—without invoking the Holocaust. That reference should be reserved for contexts that actually approach that scale.

Let's respectfully agree to disagree on the specific comparison. That said, your points about the UK and the potential for censorship via ID gates are valid and worrying. That is definitely a fight worth fighting—I just prefer different rhetoric to fight it.

@Tutanota@mastodon.social

nocci@punk.cyber77.de

@kgMadee2@mathstodon.xyz

I already made my stance clear:

@Tutanota@mastodon.social

RE: https://punk.cyber77.de/notes/ahklg4paq2f809e1

cejjacobs@mastodon.social

@Tutanota the other day reporting on Roblox (game platform) some people were happy that the platform added age verification by scanning a photo. So voluntarily having children giving their pictures for facial recognition… (the kids were unimpressed. One 12 years old was identified as 16-17, another claimed to have shown a random photo of an adult)

jathanasiou@mastodon.social

@nocci @Tutanota I hear you and yes I understand your stance very much.

It is important in times like these to retain a sense of unity even if we have somewhat different ways to call out and deal with the dangerous, undemocratic powers we face.

Abspeckgeflüster – Forum für Menschen mit Gewicht(ung)

Age verification is spreading like cancer.