In the page: "This can be done via the EU age verification tool or other third-party solutions that offer reliable, secure and privacy-preserving means to verify the user’s age". It's well demonstrated by now "third-party solutions" do not work, and do not have any privacy guarantees. Even banks that must abide to supposedly the most strict regulations will surrender all your personal data to anyone asking with a government email, see the latest Revolut leak. What about this "EU age verification tool?"? It's the one you may have heard about that requires you to use an Android device passing Play Integrity or iOS [0]. What would be the rationale for the EU to research and implement a truly anonymous, transparent age verification system? Even ZPKs cannot do that, and most likely won't ever. [1]

This insane proposal that has now been approved will bring an unprecedented level of mass surveillance China critics a decade ago wouldn't have even believed. Combined with other heinous ideas such as ChatControl, desperately, repeatedly pushed for earlier this year until it passed again, Europol and other surveillance lobbying groups must be salivating at the prospect of having total control over all citizen's life, regardless what the made-up excuse to implement such regulations is. "Europol Sought Unlimited Data Access in Online Child Sexual Abuse Regulation" [2]

0. https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet/av-doc-technic...

1. https://balkaninsight.com/2023/09/29/europol-sought-unlimite...

2. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/08/zkps-arent-age-verific...

If they really cared about the children, they would drop the big brother age verification and go through with everything else.

How many children under the age of 13 are making social media accounts by themselves?

Why does every adult that uses a platform have to submit their ID to remove addictive platform features for children? Why are the platforms allowed the use of these addictive features in the first place?

This 'act' shows a lack of focus at best, and malicious government spying at its worst.

How about an OLDIES act to keep, say, senile EU commission presidents above the age of 66 safe from the dangers of the interwebs.

Think of the children.

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

https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/mlr/vol89/iss3/9/ Think of the Children! Unmasking the Rhetoric Behind Internet Censorship in the Digital Age

https://isaacg1.github.io/2023/04/02/think-of-the.html 'Think of the Children' Fallacy