I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

Source: Hacker News

Background

Identity and age verification are becoming increasingly common policy discussions worldwide. Often these measures are tied to proposals that would ban children from various “social media” platforms, effectively requiring everyone to prove they are not a child. I have yet to see a well‑considered proposal, and the underlying question is rarely stated clearly. Instead of broader sociological analysis, the conversation tends to focus on perceived “quick‑win” technosolutionism.

Services I Would Not Verify For

• My own services – Much of what I do online involves accessing my own federated server, RSS server, and messaging services. I would not verify my identity or age to read someone’s RSS feed; the blogs I follow are not crucial to me.
• YouTube / video platforms – If YouTube were forced to require age verification, I would simply stop watching YouTube videos. I already download videos to my Jellyfin instance, and I purchase second‑hand DVDs that I rip and stream locally. I haven’t been asked to verify my age for DVD purchases in a very long time.
• Friends’ sites – Some friends have tried to block access to their sites from the UK. I can still reach them via Tor, which I tend to use. Their potential loss of visitors and revenue is unfortunate, but it does not affect my willingness to verify.
• Forums and Reddit – I no longer use individual forums (their demise is a shame) and I don’t use Reddit. If HN forced identity or age verification, I would simply stop checking the comments.
• Comments sections – I block comment sections altogether, so I have no interest in verifying for them.
• Code forges / FOSS contributions – Most of my contributions are non‑code, but I occasionally use GitLab repos and other forges. I am not a massive or particularly valuable contributor, so I could step away without much impact.
• Wikipedia – I would rebuild my Kiwix instance and use that instead. Articles might be less up‑to‑date, but I rarely need rapidly changing information.
• Signal – This would be a pain; I have no workaround and I already use XMPP as a complement, not a replacement.
• Teams / Zoom – I don’t have accounts on these services, but I join meetings via browser links from clients. If forced to verify my identity or age, I would have to weigh the decision carefully, as some long‑term clients may not change their corporate approach.

Potential Exceptions

It is possible that a future service could emerge that I would truly want to use, even if it required identity or age verification. At present, however, I cannot think of any service that meets that threshold.

Conclusion

I will continue to object to mandatory verification measures; adopting a “I’m okay, Jack” stance would be selfish. In practice, though, I expect the impact on me to be minimal. My approach leans toward self‑imposed digital isolationism—opting out of services that demand verification unless a compelling reason arises.