you just did your part to normalize it.

No no no fucking NO!

Do NOT accept this! Do NOT normalize this! DO NOT COMPLY!

Did you really need to see that youtube video? If it was that important, then find another way. Lie. Get a downloader. Get creative. Or walk away, since it was probably not that important

DON'T SELL YOUR IDENTITY FOR CONVENIENCE. DON'T WILLINGLY FEED THE SPIES MORE INFORMATION.

I don't use services that ask me to prove my age, beyond a drop-down date picker, in which case I was born in 1969.

... I just had to verify my age ...

No you did not. You chose to do so.

I have not used WhatsApp in 10+ years, Windows in 4+ years, Google services in 2+ years.

It is a choice, stop lying to yourself about having to accept things.

Are you giving up your privacy to a profit driven corporation who absolutely can't be trusted with it, just because you want to watch a video that has no real point other than entertainment?

That's what normalisation of age verification looks like...

For YouTube, use a VPN that terminates in Albania. Like magic, no more forced sign ins, or ads, or age checks.

I haven't age verified anything and I don't plan to. It's only normal when you normalize it. If something will no longer allow me access without verifying my age, I will either find a way around it or I will no longer use that thing. If Youtube is not going to let me watch age restricted videos, so what? I will not watch age restricted videos on Youtube. I will instead use an addon to find them on odysee or peertube instead if possible, or I'll just live my life accepting that video probably wasn't one I really needed that contained the only key to living a happy life. It's not that important, certainly not important enough to verify my age to the surveillance police.

If they try to make me age verify my home internet connection, well then I'm gonna have to get real creative, sure, but rest assured I will (with the help of the rest of the privacy-oriented community) find ways to obfuscate the fuck out of all traffic in and out of my network so thoroughly it won't even matter if they know who owns my internet connection because it won't even be relevant anymore. VPN everything. Become an open relay. Join the I2P project. Embrace mesh networking. Fuck them, they can't stop us all.

Not for me it fucking hasn't.

And won't.

Why are you not using a VPN?

It doesn't have to be. While the real issue is like all surveillance, it will get pushed back against and then repackaged later as a "new" idea again.

We've been doing this song and dance since the Clipper Chips.

Once the politicians start realizing they cannot legislate math and that they are also at risk under these systems, we'll see bigger pushback to them again.

I haven't been able to watch age restricted videos on YouTube for many years since I closed my google account.

I'm used to not being able to watch or go anywhere I want.

Use Newpipe if your are on mobile, it is from the fdroid store. No need to login to watch YouTube

Hasn't yet.

Is becoming, yes. There are still plenty of opportunities to stop it provided that the democratic process remains somewhat functional and governments have not gone into "we are the rulers, we decide whatever we want, screw the will of the people" mode yet.

I don't have the answer on how far on the path toward that aforementioned mode we are. :(

Not for me, I don't participate in any service that requires it

I refuse.

Try using GrayJay or some other frontend to avoid restrictions. The more resistance, the more clear it becomes that the people don't want this until politicians are forced to compromise (if they don't want to get hanged)

It only becomes normalized if we continue using those services.. If these co's saw a meaurable reduction in engagement after implenting these rules they would back peddle. The almighty dollar is king afterall.

Haven't interacted with anything forcing it yet.

you can ignore those. But services require ID/ facial scans is becoming more pervasive, and it only serves one thing surveillance.

Hello Nebula

It is funny, a few years ago my YT account got flagged, for 17+ years it worked fine, but suddenly I could not watch age restricted videos, they wanted my ID to verify my age.

However, most videos I watched was not restricted, so I ignored it, and realized something, I just had to wait a month or two and then my YT account was 18, and I suspected they would lift the block at that time.

And, indeed they did, I never sent in any ID or verified in any other way, and it has worked fine for years since then