Why can't the EU just play the Valve card, and just do nothing and win? Fucking do nothing rather than this shit.

If kids are using VPNs, most of the time it will be because their parents made that decision for them; most aren't using their parents' credit cards to buy a VPN subscription to bypass blocks without their parents knowing. Age verification advocates argue that it puts more control in the hands of parents, but in the case of VPNs, taking that control away goes entirely against that argument.

It's not about giving parents control, or ultimately even about kids at all; people want to impose their personal morals on all of society via governmental enforcement mechanisms. Social media platforms are promoting it because age verification is beneficial to them as a legally-mandated anti-bot mechanism, increasing their advertising revenue by guaranteeing user suitability for advertisers.

Even more of the reason to need a VPN.

The European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) has warned that virtual private networks (VPNs) are increasingly being used to bypass online age-verification systems, describing the trend as “a loophole in the legislation that needs closing.”

So a warning about just that. So the EU did not and neither did EPRS warn, they did in fact not call VPNs a loophole that needs closing, which would include any VPN.

That said, watch out for slippery slopes!

Funny, seeing as EU itself is a loophole in democracy.

Age verification is such a joke on multiple levels

I don’t see how this could be easily enforced if every website uses encryption. Once it’s encrypted it’s pretty much impossible for anyone to identify what’s what.

@schnurrito I am considering a lot about being anti-EU.