Age verification laws are coming fast.

And, from my perspective, opponents are struggling to find impactful messaging to explain to the general public the damage they are about to do to freedom.

Or to propose alternate futures that address the underlying anxieties.

Sure, most folks that are here on #Nostr intuitively understand the dangers... And nod along when we gesture at the dangers of surveillance overreach.

But I worry that the common language for talking about these initiatives typically relies on some priors that are not universally shared outside people that live and breathe concerns about tech.

Saying that something is a surveillance dystopia works on me. But not the neighbors.

I'm guilty of being inside this language bubble too, and it's hard to escape.

Yet, when faced with politicians talking about protecting kids from bad things that parents feel they see right now... I worry that the communities doing pushback are struggling to:

1 -find framing that makes *enough sense* to the vast majority of people that they say 'ok this is net bad' and push back

2- find their own ways to productively connect with the anxieties that politicians are drawing on. E.g. worried parents.

3- offer things that are honest, well meaning alternative paths for the underlying problems

Anyone have thoughts on this? #AskNostr

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the "slippery slope" argument could be useful, especially with EU trying to ban encryption again, "verify you're human" on every other webpage, and so on. If we frame it as "this is not about the kids, it's about everyone; they're closing the web down across the board" it might resonate more.

I make the point that technology exists that allows age verification ( that is, user is older than 18 ) without revealing anything else about the user. If the concern were children safety , it would be used.

Instead, what is deployed to , ostensibly, verify the age, forces the user to reveal their identity.

Sometime that starts a good conversation.

What tech can be used to verify age without revealing ID? Thanks🙌

ION was very promising,

https://github.com/decentralized-identity/ion

As well as Web3ID

There are also other projects that use ZKPs (Zero-Knowledge proofs ) , I’m aware of

https://github.com/zkpassport

https://github.com/0xPolygonID

And this type of tech it *can* be deployed now, as demonstrated by google wallet:

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/05/02/google-adds-zero-knowledge-proofs-to-wallet-for-age-verification

A convincing argument against KYC or ID verification is that it creates data that will eventually be hacked and makes everyone a target for targeted scams, social engineering attacks, etc.

Nobody wants to be a target and these attacks will increase in the coming years and become more sophisticated.

Do you trust the government?

Do you trust every single individual that works for the government?

Would you allow a stranger to play with your phone unsupervised?

If not consider that compliance with this law violates each.

Be the change you wish to see. Have the conversations even though it will be difficult. When people are threatened by what you say, ease off. We can’t force people to understand this otherwise we’re no better than the authoritarians who push the other side. Patience. And above all: put on your own oxygen mask before helping others.

#rebels

I'm comparing it to the Chine Social Credit Score System and people are getting it

Comparing what politicians are aiming to do to what is already happening in China helps.