So, You've Hit an Age Gate. What Now?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation just dropped a guide for people stuck behind age gates, and the crowd went off like a fire alarm. EFF’s stance is clear: age checks are risky and often biased, so share the least data possible. Their resource hub walks you through options and warns that face scans can misjudge people—especially people of color, trans and nonbinary folks, and those with disabilities—and that some vendors (like Yoti) even send your photo to their servers. Cue the comments section chaos. One camp yelled “just use a VPN,” treating age gates like a speed bump. Another proudly confessed they never click cookie banners and plan to nuke age checks the same way. A third crowd wondered—only half joking—if teens are already sharing one “throwaway identity” like a bootleg Netflix login. Meanwhile, a frustrated skeptic says the rumor that Google magically skips age checks is “proven false,” noting the thousands still stuck verifying. And for comic relief? A perfectly unhelpful hack: “Face scan: download Gary’s mod.” The vibes: privacy paranoia, anti-surveillance swagger, meme-fueled rebellion, and a whole lot of distrust. EFF’s message is careful and practical; the internet’s reaction is loud, messy, and very online.