EU Age Control: The trojan horse for digital IDs

gasull 60 points 13 comments April 26, 2026
juraj.bednar.io · View on Hacker News

https://web.archive.org/web/20260426040218/https://juraj.bed...

Discussion Highlights (6 comments)

wolvoleo

Site seems slashdotted? Or HNd? Do we call it that here? :)

dmitrygr

DEAD, archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20260426040218/https://juraj.bed...

wolvoleo

> In any case, it was always presented as a toolbox that countries should adapt into their apps – so judging the app by itself does not make much sense, it depends on how these techniques are implemented in each country’s verification app. There will be no single EU app, despite what the honchos of EU say. Even more reason to make the "demo" app do things correctly because it's very unlikely that all member states actually implement things correctly. > The internet is scary, parents think they can’t protect their children from many bad things happening, and someone came to provide a “solution." A simple solution is just not providing your kids with a phone or computer. Don't forget that many sources of porn will not obey this. Think the pirate bay will ask for age verification? If they obeyed the law they wouldn't even exist. It's a solution for nothing, as the article points out too.

mayama

With the way elections changed after social media became big. Govts want to have control back, like they did before. And are increasingly curbing open internet and AI wave made it worse. Ultimately we'll get 2nd hand version of great firewall and social credit system. Some liberal democracies already have root of such systems implemented.

coppsilgold

It seems unlikely that a true Zero Knowledge Proof system for things like age verification would ever be allowed. Also, remote attestation doesn't work that way and for good reason. Under a true ZKP system, a single defector (extracted/leaked/etc key) would be able to generate an infinite number of false attestations without detection.

narennayagam

Interesting point about ZKP systems. The challenge with age verification is balancing privacy with enforcement — any centralized solution creates a honeypot for data breaches.

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