The 'papers, please' era of the internet will decimate your privacy

Sarah Mc Laughlin Jun 25, 20261134Share Imagine your favorite team just scored an incredible, last-second goal at the World Cup. So you log online to celebrate with other fans. But, using data it’s already collected on you, the social media platform you like to post on wrongly guesses that you’re under 16 so it forces you to go to a third-party verification app and provide images of your face or your government-issued ID. You don’t really know much about the verification app, what country it’s based out of, what happens with your information, and whether you’re protected from hackers or data breaches. You’re not happy about it, but you hand over a photo of your passport and hope it doesn’t come back to haunt you.

Now imagine that instead of posting about sports, you’re criticizing a powerful politician, or talking about your experiences with abuse or addiction, or discussing embarrassing medical issues you’re facing. Suddenly this “papers, please” approach to the internet sounds even more invasive, right? Unfortunately, that’s the direction we’re all headed — even here in the United States — and we have good reason to be wary of the global rush to sacrifice user privacy on the altar of age verification.

Australia’s social media ban for under-16s went into effect in December 2025 and set a landmark standard many other nations now look to when crafting their own such regulations. As a preliminary matter: This law is not working as intended. The government’s own research found that months after the institution of the ban, roughly seven out of 10 kids still were using social media. And a study just released in the British Medical Journal found “little evidence was found of immediate substantive reductions in reported social media use by adolescents under 16 years.” Secondly, phones are already banned in Australian schools, so this ban is intended to address what kids do on the internet in their own free time, not during class time.