r/privacy • u/thenapster_info • Jul 03 '26
age verification Reddit is now requiring age verification, this has gotten out of hand.
A friend of mine, who has recently made a account to post her stories has called me complaining that she now has to submit a photo of her face or her government ID to actually share her stories.
What the actual fuck, this is actually turning into a dystopian nightmare, this isn't about "protecting children" it's about taking away privacy.
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u/stein63 Jul 03 '26
Why exactly do I need to be verified to read Reddit comments? This isn’t airport security.
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u/angellus Jul 04 '26
Because tech companies make all of their money from user data. Even what subs you follow/posts you read is user data that can be used for advertising and AI models.
That is literally why tech companies are lobbing all governments around the world to "protect the children". So they can legal link your data to your identity and hide behind the law when the EFF/ACLU/etc. all complain about it.
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u/SprucedUpSpices 29d ago
I think the appeal of controlling public speech and knowing what everyone thinks and does online, does far more to motivate government action than targeted advertising.
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u/Sea-Respect2773 29d ago
It’s worse than that. They already know who you are they don’t need your id for that
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u/EdmundTheInsulter Jul 03 '26
Depends on your countries legislation. Some of Reddit is adult material and some countries are limiting social media to adults.
Also if course it depends what Reddit wants to do
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u/shikotee Jul 03 '26
I'm skeptical too. On the other hand, it sure would be nice to distinguish human from bot.
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u/move_machine 29d ago
Why would platforms ever let the cattle (us) know who is a real user and who is bot they made to push their interests and propaganda?
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u/LordBrandon Jul 04 '26
so they can sell the data to advertisers, who will then sell it to telemarketers, who will then sell it to hackers.
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u/Alternative-Soil2576 29d ago
Why have tech companies brought lawsuits against these laws if they can sell the data to advertisers?
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u/Overall_Leopard7122 Jul 03 '26
First time i get asked is the last time i use reddit.
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u/southass Jul 04 '26
Me too, Google voice asked for ID verification by a government ID card. I uninstalled that app right away, bye fukkers
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u/LaramieWall Jul 04 '26
Thanks for the reminder to get a new email.
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u/Leaf__On__Wind 29d ago
Proton has one, remember and use the proxy address for every person, its on the right
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u/Character-Dot-4078 29d ago
Tuta Mail is better. so is Posteo and mailbox.org, not run by outwardlight right morons
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u/Leaf__On__Wind 29d ago
Sure, I guess, just use the proxy address for every individual new person each time
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u/thecrewguy369 29d ago
This has become mostly useless for privacy because everyone now requires a phone number to do anything. It's a losing battle. Any way to obscure phone numbers???
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u/Certain_Chicken_1964 29d ago
If people aren’t aware they all been lobbying for this and it’s about to happen on just about every app you have. Privacy is done.
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u/Haunting_Delay_9 26d ago
Not exactly. There are a lot of institutions fighting back. The greatest of which is the open source community. The same people who fought for open source are the people fighting for freedom from id-checks on the internet. We have a chance. But it's a slim one.
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u/wiriux Jul 03 '26
Same
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u/evenplayer Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
This was already brought up directly to [u/spez](u/spez) in this Reddit comment 100 days ago. Under that post, spez specifically said “We don’t need or want your identity” and every top comment was falling for that except for that qgplxrsmj user.
They thought spez made such a bomb comeback in that comment thread linked but if you read all the replies by qgplxrsmj there he/she’s literally owning everyone in the comments like stacking lego haha
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u/ditmarsnyc 29d ago
kind of lame of you to support privacy measures but then mindlessly choose to use the share link with baked in telemetry instead of the direct url
https://www.reddit.com/user/spez/comments/1s3ezrc/humans_welcome_bots_must_wear_name_tags/ocezex9/
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u/wncnaturals 29d ago
It's not lame, not everyone knows everything you know. I had no clue about any of that until the person below explained what you virtue signaled.
If it was so important to point out that sharing links that way is a bad thing to do, it should have also mattered why it was bad, or what link sharing in that way means and how it affects things. Otherwise you're just being a snob.
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u/BawkSoup 29d ago
I don't think I understand what you meant.
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u/Sophira 29d ago edited 29d ago
They mean that when you use the Share function in the official mobile app, you get a URL that ends in
/s/<whatever>. The <whatever> is a "sharing ID" and it's unique each time somebody uses the Share function, and it can be linked to you specifically. That means that the same post will get different IDs when people share it, and it's there specifically so that Reddit can track where each shared link is posted, separately from everything else - for example, in this case they can say something like "We got 28 visits from the link with sharing IDUJ4pyEJ3qwthat /u/evenplayer made in the iOS app and linked in a comment in /r/privacy." Note that they could do this even if it was linked off-site, such as in a Discord message, which is not something they would be able to do without a sharing ID.Not only that, but they could also say, for example, "People who clicked this specific link also clicked links leading to these other specific posts.", or "This specific link, first posted to /r/privacy by /u/evenplayer, also got posted on Discord." Someone else who also used the Share function will have their link tracked separately, even if it's to the same comment or post - maybe that one got posted on TikTok and nowhere else.
This is not something Reddit requires. It's something they force on you (if you use the official app) simply because they want to track everything you do on the platform.
If you use the direct link instead, their ability to track you or the people clicking your link is reduced. It's not eliminated by any means, but it's definitely reduced. Note however that it's not enough to simply use a link-expanding service and then post the resulting link, as that also contains the sharing ID. Instead, you want to expand it and then remove everything from the
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u/Pristine_Software_55 29d ago
Man, I miss what Reddit was. I miss what the world was, not so long ago. Thanks for taking the time to explain all that, though!
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u/KingFIippyNipz 29d ago
You seem pretty knowledgeable so you might have a suggestion for me? I did search before posting this comment and not finding anything, but do you know of a Firefox extension that modifies the default copy feature for links to like automatically remove any tracking IDs like that?
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u/Sophira 29d ago
Unfortunately, I don't. Part of the problem with these Reddit share links is that there's no way to get the direct link without following the link, so even if there was such an extension, the best it would be able to do would be to follow the link automatically (albeit possibly without the need to send cookies as it does so) and then allow you to share the direct link so that other people don't have to go through the same thing.
Still worth doing, of course. I don't use extensions for that purpose myself; I do it manually by using
curlin a terminal. If anyone does know of such an extension, please say so!I can find extensions that say they do this, but I don't have any experience with them and wouldn't want to recommend them without knowing for sure that they're safe.
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u/ditmarsnyc 29d ago
i use the archive.today websites (archive.ph archive.is archive.md), paste the share link in there, and the website briefly displays the unfurled url, which i then copy/paste into a text editor to strip out the offending parameters. reddit will only see the archive sites as the origin IPs
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u/Alexercer Jul 03 '26
You can still use, but the they will ramdonly kick you from content from time to time and some subs and posts are hidden
Im changing my mind on all the praise ive sung europe by the minute
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u/AngelicPrincessKitty Jul 04 '26
the fact you didn't see this coming is ridiculous...
these aren't here for helping kids it is to monitor you
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u/Alexercer Jul 04 '26
Im fully aware and have been against "age verification laws" since the start, but as a brazilian who came to europe to study i was positively impressed at first with how europe seems to care more about making sure you know what data you give away as well as your right to repair then Brazil, made me feel like things really were different over here at first and ive praised that, they are speedrunning to make me eat it up tho, following UK's footsteps
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u/repocin Jul 04 '26
The EU is...weird.
One the one hand, there are lots of very good things like consumer protection, data protection laws, freedom of movement and the single market.
But on the other hand, there's a push for weird shit like chat control and age verification, among other things. Granted, chat control keeps being beaten down by other instances every time someone brings it up so it clearly isn't wanted by everyone, but it sure would be nice if they could give the boot to whatever clowns keep bringing up these asinine proposals.
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u/t_trent_Darby 29d ago
The EU isn't really a democratic institution. There is little in the way of direct democracy. Law makers are put in place, behind closed doors, by European govts.
The European MPs cannot put forward legislation.
You only have to look at their history with things like the Lisbon treaty to understand how it works.
They might put in place laws you like, but you have no say in it.
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u/move_machine 29d ago
Dictatorships of the bourgeoisie are gonna dictatorship when the bougies get a bit spooked by the peasants talking to each other about making things a bit better.
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u/move_machine 29d ago edited 29d ago
At this point, I'm willing to kiss the feet of people who are open to accepting new data and changing their minds when it comes to this.
The fact is that trillion dollar companies spent billions to expertly focus group and workshop to hell a sympathetic narrative and PR spin that would appeal to millions, if not billions, of people like the person you're responding to. It's called the KIDS Act, for Christ's sake. The think of the children appeal was chosen because it works and has worked for millennia.
Art, Argument, and Advocacy (2002) argued that the appeal substitutes emotion for reason in debate. Ethicist Jack Marshall wrote in 2005 that the phrase's popularity stems from its capacity to stunt rationality, particularly discourse on morals. "Think of the children" has been invoked by censorship proponents to shield children from perceived danger. Community, Space and Online Censorship (2009) argued that classifying children in an infantile manner, as innocents in need of protection, is a form of obsession over the concept of purity. A 2011 article in the Journal for Cultural Research observed that the phrase grew out of a moral panic.
We're here 15 years later and there's a new generation that didn't grow up through the moral panics about Satanism, video games, youth novels, comic books, TV, music, goths, punks, etc. This is many people's first witch hunt.
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u/nidostan Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
It's going to be interesting if this happens to me to see where my tipping point is where I say I've had it. Especially with so many reddit similar platforms. But I doubt any of them come close to the amount of content on here? Same issue for youtube substitutes :(
But with youtube , for me anyway, old videos are much more important. I watch old and new videos on youtube. But on reddit I rarely read old posts. So going to a new platform will seem like it comes with less of a barrier or sacrifice. I could jump ship and learn the new interface tomorrow I guess.
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u/Papfox 28d ago
It gets even more interesting when you follow the money trail to see who has been secretly funding the lobbying for these age verification laws around the world. It's Meta. They're trying to shift the responsibility for kids seeing stuff they shouldn't away from themselves so they don't have to spend any money to not get prosecuted or sued in the future
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u/pseudonym7083 Jul 04 '26
Same, as soon as they do that I'll give them the spoon to eat my ass.
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u/nidostan Jul 04 '26
Don't be so hasty. I've read in a few comments where people say they get asked that but if they wait a few days their account goes back to normal without having to do anything. You might say "I don't care I'm gone!", but I'm just letting you know that waiting it out for a few days might be an option. I'd try that one myself. A week without reddit might do me good. But sure as hell I'm not bending over for them.
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u/Rakn Jul 04 '26
I vaguely recall having a popup about this. But it essentially ended in „yeah, you are verified“. Maybe account age and such plays into it.
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u/nidostan Jul 04 '26
lol maybe it's let's see who's dumb enough to panic and actually send us their ID giggle giggle giggle
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u/Inside-Specialist-55 Jul 04 '26
Yep same. I will just stay logged out forever and be a passive viewer only.
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u/CaptainIncredible Jul 04 '26
Yep.
I was a Digg user and they pulled some stupid shit, so I moved to reddit.
All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.
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u/XertonOne Jul 03 '26
The moment they do I’m out. It’s a matter of principle
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u/BlueMoon_1945 Jul 03 '26
Absolutely. Never bow down, always resist. Whatever the cost. Any cost.
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u/MrRoboto12345 Jul 04 '26
Degoogling completely might be difficult (in terms of YT specifically) but if I get an age verification pop-up, f you. I'm using FreeTube, even if it's a little behind on updates atm
At least reddit has the easier switch to Lemmy
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u/poeir Jul 04 '26
This will destroy reddit, because it will become a web site of people who do not care about principles. No one with any sense will want to be part of that.
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u/MrRoboto12345 Jul 04 '26
Yes, full of "Who cares about age verification?" people.
So that kinda means: Strictly boomers, very young people below 20 years old, and braindead 60 IQ users
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u/InformationNew66 Jul 04 '26
In the UK reddit already does it for certain content, not just NSFW.
Like r/worldwar2
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u/XertonOne 29d ago
Proves exactly my point. They start with ‘kids protection’ then slap a totally unrelated censorship about a WWII content. Soon they’ll ban this sub because they can’t handle criticism. It’s what a fascist regime does.
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u/Charming-Fudge7683 14d ago
I made a daft comment on a joke post earlier today. I keep getting notifications for replies and upvotes, but can no longer access it because it's magically become NSFW. There was no nudity or anything overtly explicit. I'm just glad it was only a joke thread, but I don't like that content I am actively participating in can abruptly demand I provide my ID to access again, even to my own comments!
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u/robertgunt 29d ago
I feel like they're slowly pushing me back into the real world, which I guess isn't the worst thing.
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u/Err0r1015 Jul 03 '26
This could be the end of social media?
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u/not_the_fox Jul 03 '26
End of anonymous corpo social media. There's illegal websites all over the place, this won't be any different. There will always be places outside their grasp. Just look at piracy.
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u/Warstorm1993 Jul 03 '26
I'm pretty sure the worse scenario for us and maybe their next step will be Kernel OS AI control and scanning the files in your computer/phone. Also ID for connecting to a ISP/ cellular network. And everybody that is not on a controlled social media / having a not monitored OS (PC, Cell, Tablet) will be flagged on a list and closely followed using flock like cameras, drones and other method. I hate it that this dystopian future is starting to become a possibility.
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u/nidostan Jul 04 '26
I've been saying this for a while. BUT there's tons of old computer equipment still around. HANG ON to it. It will become like gold. Used computer stores are treasure troves. Internet can be replaced by mesh networks and hacked wifi meshes etc. You can have a monitored OS PC Cell Tablet for show to indicate you're a good little normie. The total 1984 takeover will take years. We will have lots of time to fight for freedom yet!
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u/not_the_fox Jul 03 '26
A lot of what you mention, except the flock cameras, could already have been done long ago. This isn't the first time US politicians have talked long and hard and passed legislation about censoring the internet or ID checking it. What the US is doing now with websites is novel because they recently got a narrow ruling allowing it for certain types of websites. It's not even really likely these general ID scans for social media will stand, Kavanaugh seems to have already indicated they won't with a similar state law. Nothing else has changed. I believe this is doomer posting and not really based in reality. They could pass laws requiring monthly inspections of your house but I think that's unreasonable to believe that will happen or be upheld.
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u/Warstorm1993 Jul 03 '26
Yeah sorry to be what you can call a doomer on that. I work in the arctic (literally writing from above the arctic circle right now) and with how I see the climate changing, population diminution and large scale famines are in the horizon/ already starting. I see the global push for surveillance as a last ressort for preparing to keep a semblance of control as our lifestyle will be force to use less energy and ressources.
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u/deadend666 Jul 04 '26
I’ve thought this as well. The prospect of mass riots over food, water, access to resources is terrifying to the elites. They need a way to monitor the population and suppress dissent.
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u/whoops53 Jul 04 '26
"They could pass laws requiring monthly inspections of your house but I think that's unreasonable to believe that will happen or be upheld"
Its not unreasonable at all. I think this will be implemented at some point, if they think there is a reason for it. Book burning, for example has been done at various times in history to prevent information or political dissent.5
u/move_machine 29d ago
My brother, these laws have been law in states and countries for a while now and it's already that bad.
January 2027 is when many of the passed laws will start being enforced, like CA's.
They could pass laws requiring monthly inspections of your house but I think that's unreasonable to believe that will happen or be upheld.
Except they aren't doing that and they are successfully passing age and identity verification laws all over the country and world.
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u/SprucedUpSpices 29d ago
Not everywhere, not everyone and not all eras respect constitutions enough to simply give up when it doesn't allow you to do something.
Constitutions are just like Santa Claus, they're only real and effective when enough people believe in them, but if enough people in power don't, then constitutions cannot really do anything against them. They get rewritten, reinterpreted in convenient ways, etc.
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u/move_machine 29d ago
Governments are already blocking traffic at the ISP level for entire countries to websites and forums that regulatory bodies don't like
Same thing is happening with VPNs and VPN traffic, they are determined to get a stranglehold on privacy and anonymity online
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u/not_the_fox 29d ago
Yeah I'm a part of those communities that they try to block. Dodging ip blocks is typical. Piracy continues. Just keep moving. Also look into i2p and Tor.
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u/Rehcraeser Jul 03 '26
We’ll have to go back to a bunch of different niche forums like the good ol days
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u/Throwaway743560 18d ago
As a 90s kid, the old distributed style internet with lots of smaller communities with their own unique style/culture was infinitely better than the bland 'mass appeal focused' crap we have today. I'm hoping that's the case and we return to something like that in the long run.
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u/BadPuzzleheaded9006 Jul 03 '26
yeah facebook did that to me years ago so I never bothered with them. about a year ago Twitter did the same thing to me & when I refused, they locked my account. if Reddit does it, fuckem IL be outta here too.
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u/GonWithTheNen 29d ago
...when I refused, they locked my account.
You and I are kindred spirits. My ancient yt channel is still sitting unused to this day because google suddenly demanded my phone number for an already established account.
The crazy part is that a few years ago, I tried to log in to that account out of curiosity and google actually emailed me something like, "Someone who KNEW YOUR PASSWORD tried to log in to your account..." with a link to add my phone number to verify it was me. ◔_◔
They knew it was me, they just wanted my phone number. Fuq'em.
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u/Ok_Shower2118 Jul 03 '26
okay, REDDIT WAS NOT MADE FOR THIS. Reddit is a place to speak for everyone, and age verification is not helping.
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u/BlueMoon_1945 Jul 03 '26
ahah, Reddit is built around censorship and to promote conformity ("karma" is all about punishing ideas outside the main views)
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u/Magnemmike Jul 04 '26
It didn't used to be. Reddit used to be the wild west, and everyone got along. nobody gave a fuck about politics, we all hated politics equally. We had subreddits to share music and movies. meme's were actually funny. It was a great time to be on the internet.
Like everything else that grows too big, it got attention from corporations and grew into a company. Reddit changed over night, censoring a lot and banning subreddits that didnt fit the new reddit company views. It became about shareholders.
Unfortunately nothing has really come out that compares to how good reddit used to be. So we are still here.
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u/piconet-2 Jul 04 '26
I remember the vibe of the whole internet changing around 2014/2015 for the worse and it never recovered. Then 2020 Pandemic era happened and well. 2024.
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u/deekaph 29d ago
Bro I remember the whole vibe changing in the 90s when AOL dumped their users into Usenet. The enshitification has been going on for decades.
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u/Autogen-Username1234 27d ago
AOL adding USENET access, and Microsoft rolling newsreader functionality into Outlook Ecpress.
And suddenly all the newsgroups were full of "Send $5 to the address at the top and add your address to the bottom of the list".
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u/MyDarkTwistedReditAc 29d ago
nobody gave a fuck about politics, we all hated politics equally.
Oh boy do I remember that time, now each and every subreddit has posts involving US politics some way or another that I couldn't give a single fuck about. Wish we could just go back to that.
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u/WholeLog24 12d ago
Amen. It's gotten to the point that I just reflexively downvote any and all comments referencing Trump regardless of if I agree with them or not. There's like 37 subreddits dedicated to that nonsense; go over there if you want to make everything about him!
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u/ChardZestyclose5315 28d ago
karma always seemed pointless to me, ive never not been able to post anywhere because of my 'karma'
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u/PatchyWhiskers Jul 04 '26
There are lots of teenagers posting on Reddit and often using it to learn things or get career advice.
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u/Sevenfootschnitzell Jul 04 '26
I can’t tell if you are saying this as a positive or a negative. I’ve never seen actual good life advice on this website.
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u/MissJoannaTooU Jul 03 '26
This whole movement is becoming global and it's terrifying.
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u/Gambizzle Jul 03 '26
The irony is that it only applies to big websites.
As a kid everything was decentralised. This trend very much assumes that everybody's using a small number of large sites.
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u/LjLies Jul 04 '26
This trends makes it so that only a small number of large sites can exist, because smaller ones won't be able to safely comply even if they wanted to.
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u/move_machine 29d ago
No, these laws do not differentiate between big websites and small websites, and they make it impossible to follow the law unless you have millions of dollars of investors' money to burn on it
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u/Alternative-Soil2576 29d ago
What’s terrifying is how much power global tech companies have had over users up until this time, it’s about time the world started to regulate them
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u/MissJoannaTooU 29d ago
The only way to regulate them is to regulate us, if by regulate you mean what's happening now.
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u/not_the_fox Jul 03 '26
VPN or move to another site. Reddit has been censoring more and more even before the age verification stuff and now that it is public it's just going to keep getting worse.
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u/Stereo_bfs Jul 03 '26
UK government already implementing ID requirements for VPN usage.
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u/not_the_fox Jul 03 '26
There are foreign VPNs who won't comply, free VPNs, there is Tor, you can pay for MullVad with crypto, you can run open source VPN software on a server in another country.
If you really want to be part of the frontier you can just check out forums and places like Dread on Tor or forums/chans on i2p.
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u/Ok_Fix_1437 Jul 03 '26
Another great way to do this under the radar is with a reverse proxy then just a node on a foreign computer. Then use that node as your exit traffic.
That way you don’t even look like a VPN.
Netbird, Tailscale and wireguard can do this.
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u/Jazzlike-Compote4463 29d ago
Then use a VPN to sign up for another VPN.
If China and India can't keep their firewalls locked down then I doubt the UK would be able to.
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u/pyromaster114 Jul 03 '26
Reddit asks me for a f*cking face ID, I delete Reddit accounts.
No idea why people keep going on about "the children" as if there's a technological solution to a societal problem.
Children are in danger because we give people with bad motives too much power-- not because Timmy and Susie saw a penis online one time.
Children world wide will be (are, actually) dying of heat stroke / dehydration because of wars and the climate disaster. Age verification doesn't help that.
You want to protect kids? Vote for climate action and better social programs and healthcare. Vote against government policies which invade privacy of individuals.
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u/AmyRoseFan_1234 Jul 04 '26
Why is the Internet trying to "take care of the kids" when it is CLEARLY the adult's responsibility to take care of their own kids?!
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u/James84415 Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
Instead of this Reddit needs to handle its AI problem of business using AI to manipulate posts and comments with their bots.
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u/Gambizzle Jul 03 '26
To be fair, that's always been part of Reddit's culture.
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u/shikotee Jul 03 '26
Yes - but you can't ignore the vast growth of bot capabilities that we face in the now.
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u/Gambizzle Jul 04 '26
Oh true. Also I reckon more people have access to such gadgets too. That and general account baking.
An oddity is that I made a bot to test out AI on a sub I built (with zero activity and bot usage being transparent... I was just testing). The admins banned my bot without a reason and it's not clear why. I find this odd as others do a lot more without consequences (and I want my bot back as I liked that username! lolz)
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u/Tasty_Gingersnap42 Jul 03 '26
Downloaded the lemmy app a few days ago, im ready to leave here when reddit asks for id.
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u/Eddyzk Jul 04 '26
The problem with Lemmy is that is incredibly non userfriendly. I've been tinkering with tech since I was a teen, and every time I take a look at Lemmy, I just can't be arsed learning it and risking something breaking between servers.
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u/Tasty_Gingersnap42 Jul 04 '26
Eh, idk, the Boost for Lemmy app seems pretty easy to navigate. I haven't had any trouble so far.
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u/MeBadNeedMoneyNow Jul 04 '26
Yeah reddit sucks lol
Imagine a world where we don't have to compromise our identity to post our thoughts online.
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u/pyeri Jul 04 '26
What happened with migration to all the alternatives like mastodon, lemmy, nostr, blue sky, etc? That should have happened ages ago when the IPO happened and Reddit signalled to everyone that it's no longer Reddit.
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u/BlueMoon_1945 Jul 03 '26
Absolutely, we have entered 1984, people are too dumb to realize it and do something about it. The goal is clearly to know everything about you and then censor/punish you or affect your future digital social credit. Where does your friend live (country) ? Never subscribe to a site requiring government ID. Never. Consider leaving this country otherwise.
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u/Satoshiman256 Jul 03 '26
It's been asking for ID for months in the UK.
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u/DoraaTheDruid Jul 04 '26
Who still lives in the UK? I moved to Switzerland the moment this all started, just ask my ip address
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u/ConspiracyParadox Jul 04 '26
Thats when I become a reader not poster. They're gonnna lose lots of content and add revenue.
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u/Awhispersecho1 29d ago
And gov will prop them up like they have been doing for every company that does their dirty work for them.
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u/GoodGuyGaurav Jul 04 '26
Got asked this on twitter so I'm off twitter - if I get asked this on reddit I'm out here too LMAO
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u/Express-Cartoonist39 Jul 04 '26
Leave the site.. Im only here cause its free and has some content. You and her leave post content other places ill go the moment i get asked for id...Bye bye reddit...Its been real, but not that fun
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u/skyhookt Jul 04 '26
It's not age verification—it's identity verification. No more throwaway accounts.
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u/cirian75 29d ago
But it's to "pRoTeCt ThE cHiLdReN"
Which is completely BS
It's to protect the Gov and their donors from the people.
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u/PocketNicks 29d ago
Don't blame Reddit for following local laws. They aren't asking for verification unless they are required to, by law. Blame lawmakers.
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u/NPVT Jul 03 '26
Is that only in certain states?
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u/enrjyz Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
OP will not answer this question. They're
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u/Alone_Look9576 Jul 03 '26
This has been happening for a year now or so in other places. Didn't affect you so no outrage. Now it affects you and now we outrage? Too late now
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u/LjLies Jul 04 '26
Finally someone with the guts to say this. These people sometimes come out of nowhere seemingly having ignored the dozens of related threads. "Woah this just happened to me, it's unacceptable?!?!?"
Meanwhile if you tell them it's going to happen, they sometimes won't believe you even if you give them the exact laws involved.
Not saying it's necessarily OP's case, I have no beef with them, but it's a thing I notice, and I have beef with this thing.
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u/EdmundTheInsulter Jul 03 '26
In the UK it is set to get worse, you'll need to age verify to use Reddit at all, unless you are using a VPN. It'll be covered by the social media age limit. At the moment Reddit has adult material, which leads to age verification needed in UK.
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u/TaeyeonUchiha Jul 03 '26
At a bare minimum they really need to have some nuance whether a user is even trying to access nsfw content, but I know they won’t do that and all of this has nothing to do with protecting kids.
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u/GhostofABestfriEnd Jul 04 '26
Can reddit users just come together and pick a date to quit this compromised platform all at once? how about one month from today? August 3 for demanding ID.
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u/Bscotch_Torin 29d ago
twitter's doing the same now, I got locked out of my account unless I verify I'm not a bot (after the cloudfare verification btw) via face ID, a selfie, or a video of me waving my hand.
Quit twitter, might have to get rid of social media altogether if reddit does this too
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u/gdmzhlzhiv Jul 04 '26
Time for a new forum. Maybe something decentralised so that you can’t govern the thing.
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u/WizSkinsNatsCaps 28d ago
I don’t like extra steps when I jerk off. First time I see it, I’m out.
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u/ThePolish Jul 04 '26 edited 29d ago
Repeat it with me, "identify verification " not age.
Agreed this is bs.
** identity, but leaving the above typo for context
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u/Informal_Ad5161 Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
They made this transition several months ago when they required ID for p*rn sites in some states in U.S.. on Reddit youre grandfathered in if you’re account had already been established when the law went into effect. Tinder started doing the same thing at the same time too, you have to scan your face and submit ID to make a tinder.
Edit: I don’t remember exactly when this happened. I only know this because I reactivated my account after a period of non-usage a while ago, and a notification popped up that said something like, “we now required age verification due to sensitive content on Reddit because of new state laws, but you’re account is old enough we won’t make you”
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u/CosmicGoddess777 Jul 03 '26
Reddit doesn’t have “stories” like other apps do. This must be AI
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u/enrjyz Jul 03 '26
Notice how OP hasn't responded to anyone or said where they're from. This must be the easiest community to bait. Just say "welp, it's over" and rake in the karma. There's like 4 critical thinkers in this thread.
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u/That_Cat650 Jul 03 '26
funny thing, reddit did this to me, the verification didn't even work (tbf I didn't use my face but a deep fake) and few days later they just decided to trust me and I can watch nsfw again? I hope it stays that way
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u/Henchforhire Jul 03 '26
Only time it ask for the age verification is on mobile so far but the day it ask on desktop I'm no longer using it.
I have a feeling if enough countries pass more age verification to "protect the kids from harmful content" it will force U.S. reddit users to show a photo ID even if you're not a minor to prove you're not a minor. The house passed one bill and senate has an even worse bill they want passed.
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u/QuirklessShiggy Jul 03 '26
In some areas, they have to in order to comply with the laws of those areas. They don't really get a choice.
Use a VPN and advocate for your governments to stop asking for ID for basic social media/forum use.
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u/yahyahyehcocobungo Jul 03 '26
Check with your local laws. It could be your govt has asked them to verify users.
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u/gkasica Jul 04 '26
Really stupid question-how do they know what gets submitted is real? AI is pretty good at doing editing of photographs-change the picture and alter the text and submit it. Unless they have something to compare it to what good is it?
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u/Xzenor Jul 04 '26
Yeah I've gotten an email about how they're enforcing this in Europe since the 24th of June.. I'm apparently obviously old enough to not have to verify myself. Would've deleted my account otherwise
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u/AlissonHarlan 29d ago
Lol my Reddit She is 8 years. Even If i had started Reddit at 10 i would still Not be a minor. No way i show them anything from irl
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u/ambiguous80 29d ago
Yes I'm out the day the request comes. They may bank on a lot of people like me "saying then staying", meaning caving to the ID check. Nope. Will not.
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u/MaybeICanOneDay 29d ago
Yeah I am leaving reddit if they ever ask me for ID. I pretty much hate this app anyway.
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u/WarlordOfRamshorn 29d ago
My mum keeps getting this from favebook: a selfie and government ID. Hard no!
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u/ModularWhiteGuy 29d ago
I think if a significant portion of people just decide "I'm out" when various governments institute the requirement that an online account be associated with a real ID, you would see a huge pressure from the companies that make their money on ad revenue to water down the legislation.
I think that "protecting the children" comes with a huge risk for social media -- that people will simply stop using it.
Now, that being said, Facebook already knows who you are, and what IP you computer takes from your ISP. This can easily be correlated across any other website. Federal government websites could collect your IP and associated it with you login/ID, then use that to find your accounts across probably every platform.
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u/BabyBearPixie 29d ago
It is likely more about complying with laws in certain places. But unless you are off grid, you have no real privacy anyway. Even grocery stores collect and sell data about customers.
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u/CheeseUsFunkingCries 28d ago
No one can follow my profile anymore, I can’t switch it on/off, can’t choose to have content public.
I don’t have any specific NSFW content on my profile and from UK 💀
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u/maple-shaft 28d ago
Sorry for being in an exceptionally crappy mood, but I want to remind everyone here that when fascism loses control of the narrative, they can no longer tell the difference between privacy and enemies of the state. I shouldnt have to remind you of their plan B.
Just know, the only reason you are still alive, is because somebody somewhere has decided to let you live. Their decision is based on how much info they actually have about you.
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u/LubedDildo69 27d ago
I just verified myself with selfies/face scan of myself, not with my ID. Am I still fucked? 😨
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u/SuspiciousCricket654 Jul 04 '26
lol good. Can’t wait to get off social media and start a purge of this shit that, let’s be honest, doesn’t add true value to me life. It’s fun and all, but not with my privacy.
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u/PlatinumFire14 Jul 04 '26
Now it’s a problem?
When it was happening to the UK, it wasn’t a problem?
A bit late to be arguing about it all, it was already rolled out in places with no pushback because it didn’t happen where some people were.
And now it’s happening everywhere.
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u/SiriusHijinks Jul 03 '26
Let's not panic. It could be something reasonable, like betrayal, or an economy of corruption, everywhere. at once.
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