[Cryptography] Anonymous age verification

[Christian Huitema]

On 7/15/2026 8:25 PM, Peter Gutmann via cryptography wrote:
>> The EU has implemented an anonymous age verification app (in minutes, using
>> Claude, I'm led to believe). The current implementation can be bypassed (even
>> en masse using a browser add-on).
> As with social media bans (and many, many other things like littering,
> speeding, etc) the goal isn't to stop everyone all the time, it's to stop as
> many people as is practical.  You're not keeping nation-state attackers out
> here, you're trying to reduce social harm.  If you can solve even 50% of the
> problem you've made a huge difference when it involves tens or hundreds of
> millions of people.


The whole debate is bizarre. Web sites and social apps are largely 
financed through "surveillance capitalism". The tools of surveillance 
are busily trying to fingerprint users, to determine what kind of wares 
they could advertise and what kind of contents they should push through 
their algorithms. I am pretty sure that these tools have an excellent 
idea of the age of the person behind the screen. If the law merely said 
"don't show porn to minors" or "don't direct the algorithm to trick 
minors into your world", there would be no need for sophisticated age 
management system. Simple post facto sampling could detect whether porn 
was in fact shown to minors without due precautions, or whether so 
called gamification was use to capture the attention of children. And 
then, a system of fines should not be hard to imagine. No need for fancy 
math.

-- Christian Huitema