Two of the most far-reaching online safety proposals in the United States and Europe softened their most controversial features this week, yet both quietly preserved a mandate that critics warn could reshape internet privacy for everyone: mandatory age verification.
The Provisions That Quietly Survived
The Kids Online Safety Act in the U.S. and the European Union's "Chat Control" framework each retreated from the measures that drew the loudest opposition. But neither package abandoned the requirement that users prove their age before accessing certain content.
Evin McMullen, chief executive of Billions, argues that this surviving provision is precisely where the real danger lies. While public attention concentrated on the most visible battles, the age-check mandate advanced with far less scrutiny — and, in her view, it may be the more consequential of the two.
The mechanics are deceptively simple. To demonstrate they are old enough to view restricted material, adults would need to present identity credentials. In practice, that turns anonymous browsing into identified browsing for all users, not just minors.
Framed as a tool to protect children, mandatory age verification converts the baseline of online anonymity into a system where every user must first prove who they are.
How It Moved Without a Vote
McMullen's sharpest objection is procedural. The shift toward identity-linked internet access, she contends, was never subjected to a standalone public debate or a vote on its own merits. Instead, it was bundled into larger legislative packages, allowing a significant expansion of surveillance infrastructure to advance with minimal examination.
The pattern was consistent on both sides of the Atlantic. Lawmakers walked back their most contested ideas while keeping the age-verification requirement intact, effectively normalizing identity checkpoints without a dedicated reckoning over their broader implications.
- KOSA in the U.S. retreated on its most contested provisions but kept age verification.
- The EU's Chat Control framework followed a similar path.
- Both retain requirements that could compel adults to submit identity credentials to access content.
A Test for Privacy Technology
For the cryptocurrency and privacy communities, the development intensifies a long-running tension between regulation and the vision of a permissionless, private internet. The worry extends beyond any single policy to the precedent of embedding identity checks into routine online activity.
McMullen suggests the debate raises a practical challenge as well: whether privacy-preserving verification tools could achieve the stated goal of protecting min