EFFecting Change: The Human Cost of Online Age Verification

EFFecting Change: The Human Cost of Online Age Verification
January 15 at 12:00 PM PT

Age verification mandates are spreading fast, and they’re ushering in a new age of online surveillance, censorship, and exclusion for everyone—not just young people. Age-gating laws generally require websites and apps to collect sensitive data from every user, often through invasive tools like ID checks, biometric scans, or other dubious “estimation” methods, before granting them access to certain content or services. Lawmakers tout these laws as the silver-bullet solution to “kids’ online safety,” but in reality, age-verification mandates wall off large swaths of the web, build sweeping new surveillance infrastructure, increase the risk of data breaches and real-life privacy harms, and threaten the anonymity that has long allowed people to seek support, explore new ideas, and organize and build community online.

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This event will be recorded and available on our Youtube page and the Internet Archive.

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January 15, 2026
12:00 PM Pacific
Join our conversation about age verification online!
www.eff.org/EFFectingChange