Today, 21 January 2026, the European Commission published its long-awaited proposal for a Digital Networks Act (DNA). Framed as a technical modernisation of Europe’s telecom rules, the proposal marks a decisive shift away from core principles that have safeguarded an open and neutral internet for almost a decade.
On what data? All age verification does is attest that an IP is over a certain age; the European solution collects no information other than the boolean “Is user over <age>?”, the expiry date, and the issuing authority. I don’t know what you can do with data simply saying that the user isn’t browsing the internet “illegally”, since with age gating every user on the Internet is over that age. In our present time of dynamic/private IPs, the operator behind the IP (and consequently their age) changes constantly anyways, meaning that little data is constantly invalidated.
Chat Control is “dormant”. It’s been amended, re-proposed, and then put back on the backburner for umpteenth times, including this time. It’s definitely a threat, I agree, but nothing about it has become more eager in 2025.
Forcing everyone to identify themselves with ID and or likeness, to private companies, ID’s every account and IP, and everything done under that recorded, and AI sorting it all. Do you really not know what is going on here? You think the information won’t be held by anyone?
Intelligence already has that information too to a degree. This would be accessible to lower level government, like political appointees, to silicon valley doing the verification, to the police, you name it, no matter what they tell you.
You do realize some of the verification is sending video of you, and or sending in ID. If you don’t see a problem with that, I could not help but think your fear center is impaired somehow.
Again, the EU age verification is not done by private companies. It’s open source, the specifications are out, and it’s run by the government. Companies that access the attestation only learn whether the user/shifting IP is above the age of majority. They cannot get your ID.