In 2025, age checks started locking people out of the internet

This piece examines the 2025 rollout of online age-verification measures across Europe and the US, detailing enforcement via geoblocking and IP-based checks, the approved verification methods (e.g., facial estimation, banking and mobile checks, digital IDs, credit cards, and photo-ID matching), and the resulting privacy and security risks from concentrating sensitive identity data. It highlights increased VPN use as a common workaround, notes potential escalation toward cross-border filtering, and warns that binding everyday browsing to identity may erode anonymity and free access unless privacy-preserving, double-blind verification becomes the norm.