FTP server? In the 2010s/2020s? Seriously? That's just wild.

Nah, they'll just put a big 'ARE YOU AN ADULT?' button on every website and call it a day.

Yeah, 'initially.' That's always how it starts. Remember when GPS was just for navigation? Now it's baked into everything and tracks your every move. The 'repurposed' part is what everyone's worried about, not just the initial intention. This is just another layer of control.

Classic Brussels. Spend millions on something a college intern could build better in a weekend.

Yeah, because that'll stop anything. Just drive everyone to VPNs and encrypted messaging. Classic authoritarian move, always short-sighted.

Mandatory age verification for *operating systems*? Are these politicians actually serious? Do they have any idea how technically impossible, privacy-invasive, and utterly useless this would be? My computer won't boot until I show my ID?

It's actually really good for research with citations, far better than ChatGPT for academic type stuff. Lots of devs and researchers use it. Not niche at all.

Honestly, by 2026, if they *really* want in, they're getting in. No software trick or encryption bypasses their ability to just demand it. Or worse, use some Zero-day or a physical exploit. The only real protection is not having anything incriminating on it, which kinda defeats the purpose of 'protecting your privacy' in the first place.