246 | Age Verification Laws Are Coming for the Internet — Should You Be Worried?

What happens when the government decides to protect your kids online — and ends up with your ID, your face, and your data in the process?In this episode, Josh and Will dig into the growing push for age verification laws in the US and around the world. What starts as a conversation about protecting kids on social media quickly spirals into a much bigger question: what are we actually trading away when we hand our digital identities over to Instagram, PlayStation, or the government? Will walks through his deep passion for digital privacy and anonymity, and Josh pushes back (and sometimes agrees) on where personal responsibility ends and government regulation begins. It's their most politically adjacent episode yet — and honestly, one of their best.They cover everything from facial recognition in dating apps to surveillance state worst-case scenarios, VPNs and Brave browser, the death of online anonymity, and whether parents — not laws — should be the ones calling the shots on their kids' screen time.Buckle up. This one gets real.--♣️Want to become a HiTech Club member, support the pod, and get all of the extras on our episodes? Head over to our Buy Me a Coffee to subscribe: buymeacoffee.com/hitechpodcast.🌐Check out ⁠⁠⁠hitechpod.us⁠⁠⁠ for all of our episode pages, social links, and more!📖Need a journal that's secure and reflective? Check out our episodes on the Reflection App, and then sign-up for the App⁠ today!🌏Build a world limited only by your imagination in Topia! A virtual world-building tool built to bring you and any of your virtual guests together. Interested in signing up and learning more? Reach out to us or Topia and let them know we sent you!