science

I don't think these systems should be implemented, the internet should be a free place and that's it. Before anyone says "what about the kids oh my god" - this has nothing to do with kids, but the politicians like to use the kids as an excuse to do anything because if you add "kids" and "pornography" or even better "online abuse" and "kidnap" into the same phrase then they can shame you and shut down any argument against whatever they want to implement.

This age verification BS is just a first step into full identity verification online and also the govt knowing exactly you're doing online, when and where. They also want to be able to instantly remove your ability to login into anything (or everything) they would like.

People say that the US is turning into surveillance / china-like state but in reality the EU is way, way closer than that. Just look at what was done with the EU Digital COVID Certificate (EUDCC) recently:

The EUDCC was a digitally-signed document. It was usually supplied in the form of a QR code, either contained in a PDF file, or as a printout. There are various mobile apps available to store and display the EUDCC (such as the Corona-Warn-App); alternatively, the EUDCC can be presented on paper.

Technically, the QR code contains a JSON document with the information payload. This JSON document is serialized using Concise Binary Object Representation (CBOR), and digitally signed according to CBOR Object Signing and Encryption (COSE). The resulting data is compressed with zlib and encoded into the final QR code

And yes, there were countries blocking you from going into a store to buy basic stuff without showing a valid COVID certificate. No vax or no proof of recovery = starve out. Add the inability to move between cities to that and you're very, very close to the "democratic" China.

More here: https://github.com/ehn-dcc-development/eu-dcc-hcert-spec