So Bluesky just locked someone out of their account until they verified their age. The options? Hand over a copy of your government ID to some third-party verification company called KWS, submit to a face scan, or provide the last four digits of your social security number. Their response? Delete the app and walk away. Can’t say I blame them one bit.

This age verification push is spreading like wildfire across social media platforms, and it’s being sold to us under the oldest political con in the book: “think of the children.” Various states in the US are mandating these requirements, and platforms are scrambling to comply. The article someone linked shows that this isn’t just a Bluesky decision – they’re being forced into it by state legislation. But here’s the thing that really gets under my skin: this has absolutely nothing to do with protecting children, and everything to do with dismantling what little online privacy we have left.

I’ve been following the age verification debate for a while now, and honestly, every time I think it can’t get more dystopian, something new comes along to prove me wrong. This week’s revelation about Persona – the age verification vendor that’s been exposed for running what essentially amounts to a comprehensive surveillance operation – is both shocking and entirely predictable.

For those who haven’t heard, researchers discovered that Persona’s system doesn’t just verify your age. Oh no, that would be far too reasonable. Instead, it performs 269 distinct verification checks, runs facial recognition against watchlists and politically exposed persons, screens “adverse media” across 14 categories including terrorism and espionage, and assigns risk and similarity scores. They collect and can retain for up to three years your IP addresses, browser fingerprints, device fingerprints, government ID numbers, phone numbers, names, faces, and a whole battery of “selfie” analytics.