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   Age verification could soon land in Russia  putting already precarious   
   internet freedoms on the line   
      
   Date:   
   Fri, 24 Oct 2025 16:18:06 +0000   
      
   Description:   
   Russians could soon lose their anonymity on the internet, required to upload   
   ther passport to access a wealth of online content.   
      
   FULL STORY   
      
   Mandatory age verification is arriving everywhere, with Russian lawmakers   
   becoming the latest to consider age-gating online content.    
      
   On October 21, a member of the Russian Civic Chamber, Yevgeny Masharov,   
   proposed a plan to force all internet users to prove their age. This would   
   involve using their passport data, driver's license, or bank information to   
   access online content intended for an 18+ audience.    
      
   Like similar laws enforced across Western nations, the move stems from a bid   
   to shield minors from harmful content. Yet, experts have long argued that age   
   verification could negatively impact people's right to free speech, access to   
   information, privacy, and digital security.    
      
   For Russian lawmakers, however, the risk is certainly worth the trouble  and   
   adult-only content seems to be only the beginning.    
      
   In another announcement made to Gazeta.Ru , the Deputy Chairman of the State   
   Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology, and   
   Communications, Andrei Svintsov, also said that Russians are set to lose    
   their anonymity on the internet within the next three years, five at most.    
      
   "That is, every internet user will register with some specialized identifier   
   that will verify their age and other necessary access rights," said Svintsov.   
   "I think the time has come to introduce something similar to purge all social   
   networks and platforms of these bots and the seemingly limitless amount of   
   generated content."   
      
   Russians to lose their internet anonymity  what's at stake   
      
   When mandatory age verification landed in the UK and the US, it was met with    
   a fierce debate.    
      
   On one hand, both citizens and security experts were concerned that sharing   
   their most sensitive personal information could compromise their privacy,   
   making them vulnerable to data leaks and identity theft.    
      
   Digital rights campaigners also warned that a vague definition of "lawful but   
   harmful content to minors" will lead to greater online censorship, which    
   could hinder people's right to free speech and access to information.    
      
   In a country like Russia, where internet censorship is among the strictest   
   worldwide, such a risk is even stronger. That's especially true considering   
   that, as Masharov explained to RIA Novosti , adult-only content will also   
   include videos from bloggers featuring foul language, scenes of violence, and   
   propaganda of antisocial behavior.    
      
   Talking to TechRadar, Russian cyberlawyer and expert at RKS Global, Sarkis   
   Darbinyan, explains that Russia has long used the argument of protecting   
   children as a pretext for implementing more rigorous practices of information   
   and privacy control.    
      
   "The internet censorship in Russia started in 2012 with the first law on   
   protecting children from harmful information. This essentially opened a   
   Pandora's box, ultimately leading to an incredible expansion of the list of   
   grounds for blocking internet sites and the establishment of total state   
   online censorship," Darbinyan said.    
      
   The Kremlin began its quest to deanonymize the data of every user eight years   
   after the adoption of Putin's Strategy for the Development of the Information   
   Society until 2030, Darbinyan explains.    
      
   "And now, with the example of Western countries that have taken this    
   dangerous and false path, Russian authorities are seeking to completely close   
   the loop of laws that already impose numerous restrictions on private and   
   anonymous communication online," Darbinyan added.   
      
   Can a VPN help?    
      
   Motivated by their concerns, people in the UK and the US have flocked to the   
   best VPN apps as a way to bypass mandatory age checks   pushing lawmakers in   
   Michigan and Wisconsin to consider VPN blocking obligations in their age   
   verification proposals.    
      
   The Kremlin is already in an ongoing battle to crack down on VPN usage across   
   the country, with a law passed in March 2024 that even criminalizes the    
   spread of information about how to circumvent internet restrictions.    
      
   While their use isn't completely banned, ever-sophisticated VPN blocking   
   techniques mean that many services may get blocked or throttled.    
      
   Now, a law against 'extremist' content search passed last July also makes   
   using a VPN to access this content a crime as an aggravating factor.    
      
   "For people in the West, VPNs are a short-term escape from the law. For    
   people in Russia, VPNs are a true tool for civil protest," said Darbinyan,   
   pointing out that Roskomnadzor received about $1 billion at the beginning of   
   the year to fight VPNs.    
      
   It is then only fair to believe that an age-gated and de-anonymized internet   
   in Russia will come hand in hand with a fresh new crackdown on circumvention   
   tools.    
      
   Yet, "This war has already begun ," said  Darbinyan. "A separate initiative    
   to verify age won't make matters worse. Russian censorship has become very   
   aggressive even without this."   
      
   ======================================================================   
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/age-verification-could-soon   
   -land-in-russia-putting-already-precarious-internet-freedoms-on-the-line   
      
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