Technology

The EU has apparently decided that this has to be done for most public platforms by July 2026, so Discord may not have much of a choice and other platforms will likely follow: (Edit: I forgot, the EU strict age verification stuff seems to be limited to EU DSA's definition of "platforms" so as a text messenger I'm not sure Discord is part of it. But this'll still likely be coming to more services near you and perhaps Discord is just voluntarily joining the chaos..)

I could be wrong I’m not a lawyer, assume everything I write from here is bullshit, but see here:

https://www.mlex.com/mlex/articles/2368265/online-services-get-up-to-12-months-to-apply-age-verification-eu-guidelines-say “Online services get up to 12 months to apply age verification, EU guidelines say” This was in July 2025.

EU guidelines in question seem to be:

1. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/commission-publishes-guidelines-protection-minors and

2. https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/redirection/document/118226

Quotes:

“[…] the Union legislature enacted Article 28 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and the Council (6). Paragraph 1 of this provision obliges providers of online platforms […] to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security of minors, […]”

“Self-declaration is not considered to be an appropriate age-assurance measure as further explained below.”

“In the following circumstances, […] the Commission considers the use of access restrictions supported by age verification methods an appropriate and proportionate measure to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security of minors: […] an online platform accessible to minors has identified risks to minors’ privacy, safety, or security, including content, conduct and consumer risks as well as contact risks (e.g., arising from features such as live chat, image/video sharing, anonymous messaging)”

“Age estimation methods can complement age verification technologies and can be used in addition to the former,” (AKA the alternative to a literal gov ID check seems to be big data AI sucking up all user data to estimate user age.)

The in my opinion horrible solution the EU seems to have found to avoid sharing the physical ID for services that don't want to request one, is apparently this app: https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet/av-app-android-wallet-ui Which from what I can tell

1. The EU app seems to require Google device attestation so all custom ROMs are out and to be a citizen you can apparently no longer own your device,

2. Unless you use iOS or Android you're apparently not a citizen,

3. Once everyone is used to using some citizen app like that, I feel like a fascist government could easily tie it to a social score or other authoritarian measures bewyond the age verification.

4. There is a privacy friendly alternative approach anyway, that most governments seem to conveniently be ignoring:

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/13/california-law-online-age-checks-00606115 (I think Germany may already ask something like this of the more popular preinstalled operating systems, but I could be wrong.)

Anyway, I'm not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice. But spread the word, somehow press seems to be ignoring this.

Hear me out. Maybe, if you are a parent, its your duty to keep an eye on your child, and exert some control over the spaces and people they interact with?

Please, pretty please, be the spark that will stop OSS projects from hosting their "support forums" on Discord.