The Federal Trade Commission’s planned January 2026 workshop on “protecting children online” may sound harmless on the surface, but the real focus is unmistakable: age verification at scale. Behind the language of child safety lies the machinery needed to identify every user before they can click, post, or browse. Once age verification becomes mandatory, true anonymity on the internet effectively dies. What begins as “Are you a minor?” quickly becomes “Prove who you are,” transforming the open web into a system of digital checkpoints.

This shift mirrors state-level laws already passed in places like Texas, Utah, and Ohio, where users must submit IDs, biometric scans, or certified third-party credentials just to access certain sites. Scripture warns that systems of control will one day regulate buying, selling, and participation in daily life (Revelation 13:16–17). While this workshop is framed as protection, it continues laying the groundwork for a credential-based internet where access is permission-based and behavior is easily tracked. The infrastructure being built today in the name of safety may soon serve far broader—and far darker—purposes.

SOURCE: Reclaim the Net