Age verification as a method to protect children from harmful content has been around since the early 2000s, for instance to prevent children from accessing sites like Pornhub, YouPorn, and Redtube. But now, stricter age verification laws with advanced and privacy-infringing verification methods are being introduced, and could also apply to YouTube, X (Tiwtter), Reddit, Discord, and more. While age verification is used to protect the youth from explicit content online, for example, porn or violence, it also de-anonymizes online usage in a way we’ve never seen before. Requiring people to verify their age through methods like facial recognition or by registering with an official ID does make it harder for children to access restricted content, but it also prevents anyone from using the web anonymously, particularly now that age verification is being required for more and more services. It is highly problematic that these invasive forms of verification infringe on everyone’s privacy, increase the risk of online surveillance, and could end anonymity online. On top of that, politicians have now started debating to require age verification also for VPN usage.