If 2024 was the year lawmakers talked about online age verification, 2025 was the year they actually flipped the switch. In 2025, across parts of Europe and the US, age checks for certain websites (especially pornography) turned long‑running child‑protection debates into real‑world access controls.
Overnight, users found entire categories of sites locked behind ID checks, platforms geo‑blocking whole countries, and VPN traffic surging as people tried to get around the new walls. From France’s hardline stance on adult sites to the UK’s Online Safety Act, to a patchwork of new rules across multiple US states, these “show me your ID before you browse” systems are reshaping the web.
Read more…
Source: Malwarebytes News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Ex-cyber security chief says Government is ‘using’ Westminster attack to grab unnecessary spying powers
March 27, 2017
The Ministry of Defence’s former cyber security chief has accused the Government of trying to “use” the devastating Westminster attack to grab unnecessary and intrusive surveillance powers. Major General Jonathan Shaw said ministers were attempting to “use the moment” to push for security services having more control, despite there being only a weak case for it. Home Secretary Amber Rudd ...
- Three Quarters of UK Firms Reported Data Breaches or Infections in 2016
March 17, 2017
Security issues among British companies are extremely high, with 75% of firms admitting they have experienced a data breach in the last year. The data comes from a research ordered by Cyren, a cloud-based security company, and indicates that when it comes to businesses with 1000 or fewer employees, the figure rises to 85%. “There is a ...
- Anonymous Hacker took down over 10,000 Dark Web Sites; Leaked User Database
February 5, 2017
Dark Web is right now going through a very rough time. Just two days ago, a hacker group affiliated with Anonymous broke into the servers of Freedom Hosting II and took down more than 10,000 Tor-based .onion dark websites with an alarming announcement to its visitors, which said: “Hello, Freedom Hosting II, you have been hacked.” Freedom Hosting ...
- Trump order strips privacy rights from non-U.S. citizens, could nix EU-US data flows
January 26, 2017
An Executive Order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump in his first few days in office could jeopardize a six-month-old data transfer framework that enables EU citizens’ personal data to flow to the U.S. for processing — with the promise of ‘essentially equivalent’ privacy protection once it gets there. Close to 1,500 companies have signed up ...