I just don't like that proponents of age verification are systematically (including in this article) dismissed as authoritarians hiding behind "just another “what about the children” excuse to introduce mass surveillance and censorship". Many people genuinely want to find a solution that is better for the children, and telling them "if you are open to age verification you are either a fascist or a moron" is not constructive.

Also I find the way ZKP is criticised a bit manipulative. It kinda implies that "fundamentally, any kind of ZKP system can be switched off remotely and without anyone realising", and that is wrong. It can be implemented in such a way that people have pretty good guarantees about it preserving their privacy, similar to end-to-end encryption. I find it hypocritical to say "E2EE can be reasonably trusted, but privacy-preserving age verification fundamentally cannot", just because tech people like the former and not the latter.

- You have to have an approved browser.

- It has to be installed on an approved platform, Google or Apple, for which you have a valid account.

- You have to have an account on the posting platform.

- You have to get past moderation on the posting platform.

That's without age verification.

Users have been doing this themselves without state coercion for twenty years now by putting their real names all over Facebook and all the other socials.