https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-launches-age-verification-hub-resource-against-misguided-laws Skip to main content * About + Contact + Press + People + Opportunities + EFF's 35th Anniversary * Issues + Free Speech + Privacy + Creativity and Innovation + Transparency + International + Security * Our Work + Deeplinks Blog + Press Releases + Events + Legal Cases + Whitepapers + Podcast + Annual Reports * Take Action + Action Center + Electronic Frontier Alliance + Volunteer * Tools + Privacy Badger + Surveillance Self-Defense + Certbot + Atlas of Surveillance + Cover Your Tracks + Street Level Surveillance + apkeep * Donate + Donate to EFF + Giving Societies + Shop + Sponsorships + Other Ways to Give + Membership FAQ * Donate + Donate to EFF + Shop + Other Ways to Give --------------------------------------------------------------------- Email updates on news, actions, and events in your area. Join EFF Lists * Copyright (CC BY) * Trademark * Privacy Policy * Thanks Electronic Frontier Foundation Donate Electronic Frontier Foundation * About + Contact + Press + People + Opportunities + EFF's 35th Anniversary * Issues + Free Speech + Privacy + Creativity and Innovation + Transparency + International + Security * Our Work + Deeplinks Blog + Press Releases + Events + Legal Cases + Whitepapers + Podcast + Annual Reports * Take Action + Action Center + Electronic Frontier Alliance + Volunteer * Tools + Privacy Badger + Surveillance Self-Defense + Certbot + Atlas of Surveillance + Cover Your Tracks + Street Level Surveillance + apkeep * Donate + Donate to EFF + Giving Societies + Shop + Sponsorships + Other Ways to Give + Membership FAQ * Donate + Donate to EFF + Shop + Other Ways to Give EFF Launches Age Verification Hub as Resource Against Misguided Laws EFF Also Will Host a Reddit AMA and a Livestreamed Panel Discussion PRESS RELEASE Press Release December 10, 2025 A hand holding a cellphone showing a verification screen and ACCESS DENIED in the background. EFF Launches Age Verification Hub as Resource Against Misguided Laws Share It Share on Mastodon Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Copy link A hand holding a cellphone showing a verification screen and ACCESS DENIED in the background. SAN FRANCISCO--With ill-advised and dangerous age verification laws proliferating across the United States and around the world, creating surveillance and censorship regimes that will be used to harm both youth and adults, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has launched a new resource hub that will sort through the mess and help people fight back. To mark the hub's launch, EFF will host a Reddit AMA ("Ask Me Anything") next week and a free livestreamed panel discussion on January 15 highlighting the dangers of these misguided laws. "These restrictive mandates strike at the foundation of the free and open internet," said EFF Activist Molly Buckley. "While they are wrapped in the legitimate concern about children's safety, they operate as tools of censorship, used to block people young and old from viewing or sharing information that the government deems 'harmful' or 'offensive.' They also create surveillance systems that critically undermine online privacy, and chill access to vital online communities and resources. Our new resource hub is a one-stop shop for information that people can use to fight back and redirect lawmakers to things that will actually help young people, like a comprehensive privacy law." Half of U.S. states have enacted some sort of online age verification law. At the federal level, a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee last week held a hearing on "Legislative Solutions to Protect Children and Teens Online." While many of the 19 bills on that hearing's agenda involve age verification, none would truly protect children and teens. Instead, they threaten to make it harder to access content that can be crucial, even lifesaving, for some kids. It's not just in the U.S. Effective this week, a new Australian law requires social media platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent Australians under the age of 16 from creating or keeping an account. We all want young people to be safe online. However, age verification is not the panacea that regulators and corporations claim it to be; in fact, it could undermine the safety of many. Age verification laws generally require online services to check, estimate, or verify all users' ages--often through invasive tools like government ID checks, biometric scans, or other dubious "age estimation" methods--before granting them access to certain online content or services. These methods are often inaccurate and always privacy-invasive, demanding that users hand over sensitive and immutable personal information that links their offline identity to their online activity. Once that valuable data is collected, it can easily be leaked, hacked, or misused. To truly protect everyone online, including children, EFF advocates for a comprehensive data privacy law. EFF will host a Reddit AMA on r/privacy from Monday, Dec. 15 at 12 p.m. PT through Wednesday, Dec. 17 at 5 p.m. PT, with EFF attorneys, technologists, and activists answering questions about age verification on all three days. EFF will host a free livestream panel discussion about age verification at 12 p.m. PDT on Thursday, Jan. 15. Panelists will include Cynthia Conti-Cook, Director of Research and Policy at the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience; a representative of Gen Z for Change; EFF Director of Engineering Alexis Hancock; and EFF Associate Director of State Affairs Rindala Alajaji. RSVP at https:// www.eff.org/livestream-age. For the age verification resource hub: https://www.eff.org/age For the Reddit AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/ For the Jan. 15 livestream: https://www.eff.org/livestream-age Contact: Molly Buckley Related Issues Age Verification and Age Gating: Resource Hub Privacy Tags age verification age estimation age gating Share It Share on Mastodon Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Copy link Join Our Newsletter! EFF.org requires JavaScript to sign up for EFFector emails. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings to subscribe. Related Updates A hand holding a cellphone showing a verification screen and ACCESS DENIED in the background. Deeplinks Blog by Molly Buckley | December 10, 2025 Age Verification Is Coming For the Internet. We Built You a Resource Hub to Fight Back. Age verification laws are proliferating fast across the United States and around the world, creating a dangerous and confusing tangle of rules about what we're all allowed to see and do online. That's why today, we're launching EFF.org/Age, a one-stop shop for users seeking to understand what these laws actually... A blue hand holding a cellphone showing a verification screen and ACCESS DENIED in the background Deeplinks Blog by Rindala Alajaji | December 8, 2025 10 (Not So) Hidden Dangers of Age Verification It's nearly the end of 2025, and half of the US and the UK now require you to upload your ID or scan your face to watch "sexual content." A handful of states and Australia now have various requirements to verify your age before you can... A blue hand holding a cellphone showing a verification screen and ACCESS DENIED in the background Deeplinks Blog by Alexis Hancock | November 25, 2025 Privacy is For the Children (Too) Age verification will not keep children safe online. Rather, it is a large proverbial hammer that nails everyone--adults and young people alike--into restrictive parameters of what the government deems appropriate content. That reality is more obvious and tangible now that we've seen age-restrictive regulations roll out in various states and... [mobile-privacy-knight-2_0] Deeplinks Blog by Molly Buckley | November 14, 2025 A Surveillance Mandate Disguised As Child Safety: Why the GUARD Act Won't Keep Us Safe A new bill sponsored by Sen. Hawley (R-MO), Sen. Blumenthal (D-CT), Sen. Britt (R-AL), Sen. Warner (D-VA), and Sen. Murphy (D-CT) would require AI chatbots to verify all users' ages, prohibit minors from using AI tools, and implement steep criminal penalties for chatbots that promote or solicit certain harms. That... [student-privacy-2-og] Deeplinks Blog by Rindala Alajaji | November 13, 2025 Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs--And They Have No Idea What They're Doing It's unfortunately no longer enough to force websites to check your government-issued ID before you can access certain content, because politicians have now discovered that people are using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to protect their privacy and bypass these invasive laws. Their solution? Entirely ban the use of VPNs. Purple padlock with an 18+ only symbol and a combination lock requiring day of birth. Deeplinks Blog by Rindala Alajaji | October 30, 2025 Age Verification, Estimation, Assurance, Oh My! A Guide to the Terminology Age verification, age assurance, age estimation, age gating--they get thrown around interchangeably, but they technically mean different things. And those differences matter a lot when we're talking about your rights, your privacy, your data, and who gets to access information online. So let's clear up the confusion. Here's your guide... Purple padlock with an 18+ only symbol and a combination lock requiring Day, Month, and Year. Deeplinks Blog by Molly Buckley | September 5, 2025 Age Verification Is A Windfall for Big Tech--And A Death Sentence For Smaller Platforms If you live in Mississippi, you may have noticed that you are no longer able to log into your Bluesky or Dreamwidth accounts from within the state. That's because, in a chilling early warning sign for the U.S., both social platforms decided to block all users in Mississippi from their... Purple padlock with an 18+ only symbol and a combination lock requiring Day, Month, and Year. Deeplinks Blog by Rindala Alajaji, Jason Kelley | August 18, 2025 From Book Bans to Internet Bans: Wyoming Lets Parents Control the Whole State's Access to The Internet If you've read about the sudden appearance of age verification across the internet in the UK and thought it would never happen in the U.S., take note: many politicians want the same or even more strict laws. As of July 1st, South Dakota and Wyoming enacted laws requiring... A multi-colored bullhorn icon surrounded by grey-blue hexagons Deeplinks Blog by Molly Buckley | August 8, 2025 Americans, Be Warned: Lessons From Reddit's Chaotic UK Age Verification Rollout Now that the Online Safety Act has gone into effect, countless problems have begun to reveal themselves, and the absurd, disastrous outcome illustrates why we must work to avoid this age-verified future at all costs. Purple padlock with an 18+ only symbol and a combination lock requiring Day, Month, and Year. Deeplinks Blog by Paige Collings | August 5, 2025 Blocking Access to Harmful Content Will Not Protect Children Online, No Matter How Many Times UK Politicians Say So The UK is having a moment. In late July, new rules took effect that require all online services available in the UK to assess whether they host content considered harmful to children, and if so, these services must introduce age checks to prevent children from accessing such content.... Back to top EFF Home Follow EFF: * mastodon * facebook * instagram * x * Blue Sky * youtube * flicker * linkedin * tiktok * threads Check out our 4-star rating on Charity Navigator. 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