Tag: digital id

Florida Wants to Put an Age Gate on the Entire Internet

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has announced a legislative proposal that would bring age verification to the app store, the operating system, and AI chatbots.

The announcement was made at Polk State College in Winter Haven, and Uthmeier was joined by Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd and education leaders.

Under the proposal, app stores and similar marketplaces would have to “determine the user’s age, link minors to a parent’s account, and obtain parental consent before a minor downloads or buys an app from a covered platform.”

In addition, the operating systems would have to “apply age-appropriate restrictions at the device level based on the user’s age,” while AI chatbot operators and platforms “must determine account holder’s age.”

The proposal, that has not yet been turned into a bill, is full of invasive promises, including that “all age determination must use commercially reasonable, privacy-protective methods,” as if that’s possible.

However, no method is named, and this is the same promise made with most age-check laws, while reports of identity document leaks keep showing that the promise is not being kept. As Reclaim The Net reported in April, Discord’s earlier experiment with government ID age checks ended in a massive breach that exposed over 70,000 government-issued IDs.

Other provisions of the proposal include forcing social media accounts of those aged 14 to 17 to have a “quiet mode” that blocks access from 11 pm to 7 am, and from 8 am to 3 pm on school weekdays. The release says, “Muting notifications is not enough.”

For the same age group, screen time would be capped at two hours a day and 60 hours a month, “including messaging and long-form content.” Like counts would be hidden, autoplay and infinite scroll would be off unless a parent turns them on, and cosmetic filters would be disabled. Teen accounts would not be recommended to unconnected adults, who may not message them. Every three days, teens would get a prompt to switch to a non-personalized feed that they cannot dismiss.

Reports of child sexual exploitation would get human review within 48 hours, with a “one-strike” rule for adult offenders.

AI chatbots would not be allowed to offer minors features that “simulate companionship through personification, emotional engagement, user-data retention, unsupervised therapy, sexual content” or ones that “suggest the chatbot is a real human” or “encourage isolation or discourage help from appropriate adults.”

The press release said that knowing or reckless violations would be considered unfair practices under Florida Statutes section 501.1736, and would carry a fine of up to $50,000 per violation. The AG’s office would also be able to “maintain a public website to track incidents.”

Uthmeier said, “Parents deserve real control, and companies must design for safety, not addiction.” He also noted that “Florida already prohibits social media accounts for anyone under 14, and the Eleventh Circuit just upheld that law. The Safe Screens Act goes further.”

“If you invite Florida’s children onto your platform, you have a duty to keep them safe,” he also said.

Judd, meanwhile, praised the proposal, saying, “It takes the power and determination of an Attorney General to keep large social media and gaming companies from exploiting and endangering our children.”

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Eleventh Circuit Lets Georgia Social Media Age Checks Proceed

A federal appeals court has given a green light to a controversial part of a Georgia law that requires social media platforms to verify the age of every user, and in the case of those under 16, obtain parental consent.

The ruling came on Thursday, October 15, from a panel composed of Judges Newsom, Luck and Tjoflat, with Judge Kevin Newsom writing the opinion.

The case now goes back to the district court, but the decision did not address whether the law is ultimately constitutional – only that NetChoice went about its lawsuit the wrong way and did not provide enough evidence to prove the law is not constitutional.

Paul Taske, director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, said, “While we are disappointed in the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling, the court notably did not hold that SB 351 is constitutional.”

On June 26, 2025, Judge Amy Totenberg of the Northern District of Georgia ruled that the law was too vague, that it was preempted by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), and that it likely violated the First Amendment, and blocked it.

The law’s social media part requires platforms to “make commercially reasonable efforts to verify the age of account holders” and obtain a parent’s consent for anyone under 16. For those under 16, platforms can only use age and location for ad targeting.

According to the court’s own summary, the law “requires platforms within its ambit to verify the ages of all their users.”

If a platform does not verify, it must “apply the special conditions applied to minors under this chapter to all account holders.” The ways a platform can confirm a parent include “Collecting information related to the minor’s parent’s or guardian’s government issued identification or financial or payment card information.”

The attorney general can seek up to $2,500 for each violation.

There is also another section of the law that requires sites that are more than 33.33 percent “harmful to minors” to check every visitor’s age, including by submitting government-issued ID. This part of the law has been in force since July 1, 2025, and was not challenged by NetChoice.

The Eleventh Circuit panel found that NetChoice had standing to sue but did not meet the test set by the Supreme Court in Moody v. NetChoice to prove the law was unconstitutional in a facial challenge – that is, across the full range of its application. The group had to show that the law was unconstitutional across the board, and it did not.

“NetChoice hasn’t provided even a full list of its own members to which SB 351 applies,” Judge Newsom wrote.

“We’ve learned the facial-challenge lesson the hard way,” the ruling states. “We needn’t address the merits of its First Amendment claim,” it continues.

The panel also reversed the lower court’s ruling that said the law was too vague and that it was preempted by Section 230.

Attorney General Chris Carr said, “This is a major win for Georgia families and a huge blow to those who would stand in the way of commonsense solutions to protect our kids.”

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Germany Approves EU Digital Identity Wallet Law

Germany is getting its version of the EU Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet, as the country’s parliament (Bundestag) has passed the Digital Identities Act on October 15.

The law serves as the national legal framework for the introduction of the digital ID wallet, that the EU’s official digital ID scheme will be implemented with, and that Germany will launch on January 2, 2027, under the name d-you.

What the bill does is make it easier to exchange biometric data between the authorities in charge of passports and ID cards; it lowers the age at which people can use online ID from 16 to 13; and it gives citizens the option to refuse the biometric photo.

One of the issues was the age at which children can start using the digital ID, with the Left rejecting the lowering of the age to 13, “because it ultimately amounts to preparation for introducing a social media ban for young people, which it also rejects.”

EU rules say that very large online platforms are under obligation to accept the wallet, while the committee report said that the German law “extends the acceptance obligations” to situations with no cross-border element.

Reclaim The Net has previously reported about the plan of the Social Democrats (SPD) to make verification with the EUDI Wallet mandatory for social media users aged 16 and above. SPD Secretary General Tim Klüssendorf has been quoted as saying that “We are currently not meeting the state’s obligation to protect” and that workarounds “such as via a VPN tunnel” should not be possible.

The EU, however, says that the wallet will be voluntary.

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Florida Seeks Meta ID Checks For All Users

Florida’s attorney general is asking a court to make sure Meta (Facebook and Instagram) puts in place a system to check the age of all its users in that state.

If the court grants the motion, every user in Florida will have to surrender their privacy and will have to verify their age to access speech and, if they are under 14, Meta will have to remove them from the platforms. And if Meta can’t do that within 30 days, it will have to cut off every user under 18 until it implements the age-checking system.

In the meantime, the court is asked to order Meta to set limits on the use of its platforms by teenagers, including hours when they can use them, and features they can access.

“Request proof of age for Instagram and Facebook accounts belonging to users that Meta’s systems know or predict to be under the age of 14, and mark for deletion the accounts of those who do not verify their age within 30 days,” the filing says.

It also wants Meta to “Adopt and apply an age assurance framework to every Teen User.”

It asks Meta to “Treat users who Meta has reason to believe are under 14 or under 18 years of age as under those respective ages unless the users age verify.”

The motion spells it out: “If within 30 days of the entry of this injunction, Meta cannot implement the measures for user-age verification and removal in this and the prior sections, Meta must cease to allow any Young Users access to its Platforms in Florida until these measures are implemented.” Young Users means users under 18.

The default mode for teens should be “quiet mode from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. year-round, and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on academic-year weekdays”, the filing says. It also wants Meta to hide “like” counts from teenagers by default, disable autoplay and infinite scroll unless a parent turns them on, and limit the time spent on the platforms to “not more than 60 hours per month.”

The motion mentions internal Meta communications, including one that says “IG is a drug” and another that reads, “We’re basically pushers.”

Another employee is quoted as saying about hiding “like” counts, “It’s a social comparison app, fucking get used to it.”

The court is yet to rule on the motion, but Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the filing on X, saying, “We just asked a Florida court to order Meta to turn off the features that addict teenagers and to leave Florida kids alone when they’re in school or sleeping.”

Uthmeier also revealed that Meta tried to get Florida to accept a settlement, but was rebuffed. “Meta tried to get us to take their low-ball settlement, but we wont sell out our kids,” he wrote.

The attorney general’s motion calls the national settlement a “mere slap on the wrist” for a company that is valued at “roughly $1.86 trillion.”

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Danish Population Register Breached, Leaking Data of Nearly Nine Million People

Hackers are suspected of having cracked the Danish government’s national database containing the personal information of nearly nine million people, potentially exposing them to fraud or identity theft.

Copenhagen’s Ministry of Research, Education and Digitalisation said on Monday that the Central Register of Persons (CPR), the national civil registration database containing personal information for millions of citizens, has been compromised.

In Denmark, all legal residents have a unique 10-digit civil registration number, used to access public services, healthcare, banking, and taxes, and to store information on each citizen, including name, date of birth, address, marital status, citizenship, religious affiliation, and parentage.

The government said on Monday that unidentified people used a Danish business’s access to the system to wrongfully obtain the CPR numbers, names, and addresses of around 8.8 million people, the public Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) reported.

In a briefing on Monday, government minister Christina Egelund said that it was too early to tell whether it was a cyber attack or whether foreign state actors were involved in the leak.

“We are not ruling out any clues in the ongoing investigation. Nor that it may have an international character,” she said.

Egelund added that the government will review the entire CPR system and implement “adjustments and transformations” to re-establish security.

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UK Plans Passport And Facial Age Checks For Social Media

Ministers in the UK are preparing the ground for new rules that would keep under-16s off major social media platforms, with the strongest surveillance age checks yet, such as passports, driving licenses, credit checks, or facial age estimation.

This latest attempt at a ban on children using social media comes after evidence that a similar one in Australia has been widely circumvented.

The new rules will still apply to platforms that use infinite scrolling, autoplay, push notifications and unsolicited contact, and are expected to take effect in the spring of 2027.

Among those that will be targeted include Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, and X.

Everyone opening a new account will have to go through either facial recognition or upload their ID.

The government’s fact sheet about the plan is heavy on platitudes, such as the need to protect children from online harm, but also tries to address the question of how exactly the new rules will affect adults.

Proving you are over 18 “could be as simple as a facial recognition check,” the document says.

The rules are being introduced as secondary legislation under the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026.

The fact that the rules apply to websites rather than users means that those who want to access social media will be able to do so using a VPN, and this is expected to lead to a new wave of VPN adoption.

When the UK introduced age checks for adult sites in July 2025, some VPN providers reported a 1,800% spike in signups.

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SHOW ME YOUR ID: Carney doubles down on sweeping internet regulation bill

Prime Minister Carney says his government will push ahead this fall with sweeping social media regulations that would create a new federal Digital Safety Commission and impose new rules on online platforms.

“We are fighting for Canada to lead the world in building the smart, safe digital tools of the next decade,” Carney told Liberal MPs ahead of Parliament’s return.

“This fall we will press ahead with the Act to protect Canadians online,” he said.

Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, was introduced by Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller in June.

The legislation would create a Digital Safety Commission with regulatory and enforcement powers over the online platforms covered.

It would require regulated platforms to address seven categories of “harmful content,” including child sexual exploitation, any content that ‘foments hatred’, incites violence or promotes terrorism or violent extremism.

The legislation also targets content that “undermines, weakens or destroys fundamental institutions or political, economic or social stability in Canada” when it could cause a serious risk to the health or safety of the public.

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The Mexican Government Is Cutting Off Users Who Refuse to Register Their Phone Lines

The Mexican government and Mexican telecommunications companies have disconnected millions of phone lines belonging to citizens who failed to register their phones with their identities. The move comes just two months after the government announced a delay in the registration deadline due to less than half of the country complying.

In early September, Mexico’s Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (CRT) released a statement claiming that about 9.55 million phone numbers ending in “1” were registered. The CRT said about 1.9 million had been temporarily deactivated for failing to register on time. The agency claimed more than 1.16 million were reactivated after registration.

In June, the CRT announced a staggered extension for citizens to register their mobile phone lines with their identification. The new deadlines were based on the final digit of the phone number, with phone numbers ending in “0” given until August 15 to comply, numbers ending in “1” given until September 1, and so on until December 31.

While announcing the numbers for September 1 registration, the CRT reiterated its claimed purpose for linking phone numbers to individual identities, stating:

“This link seeks to eliminate anonymity on mobile lines to contribute to the fight against crimes committed through cell phones, such as fraud and extortion.”

However, since the cancellation of phone lines has begun, Mexican citizens have been posting on social media detailing their skepticism. They are increasingly concerned about how their data might be stored and who might have access to it.

These concerns are particularly prescient after numerous hacks of Mexican government databases, including one in late 2025 in which hackers used Claude AI to gain access to private information. As one user wrote:

“I’m really upset: because they didn’t register my line, they suspended my service and I was left without data. I paid for the phone, I pay the balance, and the service too. Why do I have to give more personal information just to use it? More citizen info doesn’t mean more security.”

Some users said they had registered in time, but were still disconnected.

“They suspended my line, my deadline hasn’t passed yet, the app says my line is already registered… and then what? I’ve been waiting for over two hours for a turn in the chat and on the phone and nothing, just a bot”

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EU’s Social Media Ban Could Bring ID Checks for Adults

As expected, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced that the EU Kids Act will propose that no child under 13 should be allowed on social media, while 13 and 14-year-olds should have limited accounts.

The announcement, just in time for the EU’s planned digital ID rollout, was made in von der Leyen’s State of the European Union address in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

According to von der Leyen, the Act would ensure that “no social media under the age of 13. No personal account under the age of 15.”

Children between the ages of 13 and 14 will be allowed a limited account, with a limited set of features, and with a time limit of one hour a day, and parents will have to set up and supervise these “mini accounts.”

Von der Leyen also said that the Act would reverse the burden of proof, so that instead of regulators having to prove that a service is unsafe, it will be up to the platforms to prove that their product is safe for minors.

The Commission President also took aim at Big Tech, saying, “I am aware that many perceive the power of big tech as overwhelming and impossible to roll back. I disagree.” She added, “Europe has the power to act. It is us who decide the rules, not Big Tech.”

The scope of the Act will cover social media, video sharing platforms, app stores, online games, as well as AI companions and chatbots, with a focus on “high-risk” services, although the definition of that category is not yet clear.

Other rules that have been reported as part of the Act are age checks for every new account, with existing users also subject to “proportionate” checks, taking into account the time they have been subscribed to a service. Verification will be done via an app, either the one developed by the Commission or a national equivalent. These apps will only return information about whether a user is over or under a certain age.

The draft also reportedly seeks to ban certain design features, such as infinite scrolling, autoplay, and push notifications, as well as artificial notifications and rewards. The text is said to state that “technology companies bear primary responsibility for making their products safe.”

Fines for non-compliance can reach up to 6% of a company’s global annual turnover, while a supervisory fee will be introduced to make sure the Commission can enforce the new rules.

The Commission’s app was presented by von der Leyen in April in Brussels, and at the time, she said it was “fully open source. Everyone can check the code.”

But security consultant Paul Moore took the Commission up on that and found that the app stores sensitive data on phones and leaves it unprotected. According to Moore, he was able to hack the app in under two minutes.

The Commission first responded to this by saying the app was ready and could always be improved. A week later, a spokesperson described the version presented as “a demo version.”

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Revolut Leak Shows the Cost of Constant ID Collection

Online bank Revolut has revealed that it gave out sensitive personal and financial information of an undisclosed number of its customers in response to a fake government request.

The information that was handed over to an “unauthorized third party” reportedly includes names, dates of birth, occupations, addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, transaction histories (including Bitcoin), and even copies of government-issued IDs and onboarding verification selfies.

Revolut claims that derived biometric face data was not.

The company said that the data was handed over in response to an email that came from a real government agency’s domain, but was not actually sent or authorized by that agency.

The email passed several authentication checks (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) that are designed to establish the authenticity of a message’s origin and integrity, but do not verify the legitimacy of the legal request itself.

Revolut said that it complied with the request “under the reasonable belief that it was an authentic government agency request” – and only later found out that it was not.

Revolut said it later realized its mistake, blocked the email address, and reported the incident to the relevant authorities.

Revolut said that only a “limited” number of its customers were affected by the data leak, and that the company’s systems were not hacked, nor was any money stolen.

The story broke on September 11 when Revolut customers started receiving an email notice about a data leak, and the news was picked up by media outlets the following day.

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