I’m old enough to remember when age verification bills were pitched as a way to ‘save the kids from porn’ and shield them from other vague dangers lurking in the digital world (like…“the transgender”). We have long cautioned about the dangers of these laws, and pointed out why they are likely to fail. While they may be well-intentioned, the growing proliferation of age verification schemes poses serious risks to all of our digital freedoms.
Fast forward a few years, and these laws have morphed into something else entirely—unfortunately, something we expected. What started as a misguided attempt to protect minors from "explicit" content online has spiraled into a tangled mess of privacy-invasive surveillance schemes affecting skincare products, dating apps, and even diet pills, threatening everyone’s right to privacy.
Age Verification Laws: A Backdoor to SurveillanceAge verification laws do far more than ‘protect children online’—they require the creation of a system that collects vast amounts of personal information from everyone. Instead of making the internet safer for children, these laws force all users—regardless of age—to verify their identity just to access basic content or products. This isn't a mistake; it's a deliberate strategy. As one sponsor of age verification bills in Alabama admitted, "I knew the tough nut to crack that social media would be, so I said, ‘Take first one bite at it through pornography, and the next session, once that got passed, then go and work on the social media issue.’” In other words, they recognized that targeting porn would be an easier way to introduce these age verification systems, knowing it would be more emotionally charged and easier to pass. This is just the beginning of a broader surveillance system disguised as a safety measure.
This alarming trend is already clear, with the growing creep of age verification bills filed in the first month of the 2025-2026 state legislative session. Consider these three bills:
Let’s be clear: no method of age verification is both privacy-protective and entirely accurate. The methods also don’t fall on a neat spectrum of “more safe” to “less safe.” Instead, every form of age verification is better described as “dangerous in one way” or “dangerous in a different way.” These systems are inherently flawed, and none come without trade-offs. Additionally, they continue to burden adults who just want to browse the internet or buy everyday items without being subjected to mass data collection.
For example, when an age verification system requires users to submit government-issued identification or a scan of their face, it collects a staggering amount of sensitive, often immutable, biometric or other personal data—jeopardizing internet users’ privacy and security. Systems that rely on credit card information, phone numbers, or other third-party material similarly amass troves of personal data. This data is just as susceptible to being misused as any other data, creating vulnerabilities for identity theft and data breaches. These issues are not just theoretical: age verification companies can be—and already have been—hacked. These are real, ongoing concerns for anyone who values their privacy.
We must push back against age verification bills that create surveillance systems and undermine our civil liberties, and we must be clear-eyed about the dangers posed by these expanding age verification laws. While the intent to protect children makes sense, the unintended consequence is a massive erosion of privacy, security, and free expression online for everyone. Rather than focusing on restrictive age verification systems, lawmakers should explore better, less invasive ways to protect everyone online—methods that don’t place the entire burden of risk on individuals or threaten their fundamental rights.
EFF will continue to advocate for digital privacy, security, and free expression. We urge legislators to prioritize solutions that uphold these essential values, ensuring that the internet remains a space for learning, connecting, and creating—without the constant threat of surveillance or censorship. Whether you’re buying a face cream, swiping on a dating app, or browsing for a bottle of diet pills, age verification laws undermine that vision, and we must do better.