A growing coalition wants to protect kids from online harms with age verification—a policy that sounds protective but is actually mass surveillance in disguise, according to tech critic Cory Doctorow. The problem: age verification requires fine-grained tracking of every online activity for everyone, making it far more invasive than existing ad-tech surveillance. Tech companies quietly support the push, knowing it will teach kids to use VPNs, which governments will then move to ban next. The deeper irony—the real harms kids face come from algorithmic targeting powered by surveillance data in the first place. Doctorow argues the solution isn't more invasive tracking; it's privacy protection. Yet governments are moving to make privacy illegal in the name of saving kids, handing tech companies the surveillance infrastructure they've always wanted.

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