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Nope, you always need a middle man to do the verification. That middle man has too much information.
Also, if you could solve for the middle man, there is no way to know the user belongs to the ID. It can easily be stolen.
I figured you were wrong so I asked an AI and it confirmed what the people below you were saying, you really do seem to be talking straight out of your ass
Yes, it is technically possible to build an accurate, high-confidence age-verification system that does not compromise privacy in the traditional sense (i.e., no central database of IDs, no name/address/DOB stored by the site, no paper trail that can be subpoenaed or leaked). The core tool that makes this feasible is zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), specifically age-based ZK proofs.
How a privacy-preserving age check actually works in 2025
“I have a valid credential signed by [Trusted Issuer] that confirms I am 18+ (or 21+).”
Real-world implementations that already exist or are in late-stage pilots (November 2025):
Remaining practical hurdles (why it’s not universal yet)
Bottom line
Technically: Yes, 100% possible today with zero-knowledge age proofs.
Practically: It exists, works, and is slowly rolling out, but the porn industry and most social platforms still prefer cheap/frictionless (but privacy-invasive) methods or just do nothing.
So the top reply in your screenshot (“you always need a middle man with too much information”) is outdated — cryptography has already solved the “middle man” problem. The real blocker now is deployment inertia, not theory.
Just for your edification anything you say after "so I asked an AI" is going to be ignored by most people. It just tells me everything that comes next is not going to be worthwhile. Might as well tell me your palm reader told you something.
Ok