I want to come at this from another angle: We are about to tell the entire world wide web where all the kids are.

The more these laws are enforced, the more we hand over this information to any unscrupulous website operator, app developer, or advertiser. Are we about to hand Elon Musk [0] your kids' PII? How about Zuck, who (friendly reminder) sold your 2nd-factor phone number to advertisers [1]? How about all of the leaks from these ID services [2]? Or how about these services doing far more than Age Verification [3][4]?

Given the terrible track record of data breaches in tech, this means all this information leaks into even worse hands with little recourse for people and no punishment for companies.

From a security and privacy perspective it's in kids' own self-interest and self-protection for them to undermine all of these laws.

0: "I really want to hit the party scene in St Barts or elsewhere and let loose. The invitation is much appreciated, but a peaceful island experience is the opposite of what I’m looking for." https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02706...

1: https://www.securityweek.com/facebook-admits-phone-numbers-m...

2: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/hack-age-verification-...

3: https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/persona-age-verificatio...

4: https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2026/02/age-verificat...