While these laws continue to provoke criticism from scientists, tech experts, and digital rights advocates, Proton aims to ensure that the public remains properly informed by providing timely updates as new legislation advances.

Clicking on any country reveals information about the progress of legislative proposals in that region, with the tool offering a detailed overview of the different approaches adopted by governments regarding age verification legislation.

In Europe, for example, 18 countries have already implemented or proposed age verification requirements targeting adult content. Fifteen of these have already introduced measures specifically aimed at social media platforms.

He is not alone in holding these views. Many privacy advocates and digital rights organizations argue that current age verification methods encourage the growth of surveillance while compromising users’ privacy.

Critics also point to past failures in ensuring the security of sensitive data. Breaches involving Discord’s third-party age verification service affecting over 70,000 users or the EU’s age verification app, allegedly hacked in two minutes, are just a few examples of the scale of the problem.

The picture looks even bleaker when one considers that many experts from youth organizations and children’s charities seem to agree that such methods could have harmful effects on young people browsing the Internet.

As opposition continues to grow — from scientists calling for the suspension of mandatory age verification to gaming groups and digital rights activists joining forces to prevent the erosion of Internet freedom — Yen argues that alternatives are possible.