- Russia considering mandatory online age verification
- Internet users would have to prove their age to access content for those over 18 years of age
- The measure echoes similar laws applied in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Mandatory age verification is coming everywhere, with Russian lawmakers becoming the latest to consider age-restricting 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 your passport details, driving license or banking information to access online content intended for an audience over 18 years of age.
Like similar laws enforced in Western countries, the measure arises from an attempt to protect minors from harmful content. However, experts have long argued that age verification could negatively impact people’s right to freedom of expression, access to information, privacy and digital security.
For Russian lawmakers, however, the risk is certainly worth it, and adult-only content appears to be just the beginning.
In another announcement made to Gazeta.Ru, the deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, Andrei Svintsov, also stated that Russians will lose their anonymity on the Internet in the next three years, five at most.
“That is, each Internet user will register with some specialized identifier that will verify his age and other necessary access rights,” Svintsov said. “I think the time has come to introduce something similar to purge all social networks and platforms of these bots and the seemingly unlimited amount of content generated.”
Russians will lose their anonymity on the Internet: what is at stake
When mandatory age verification came to the UK and US, it sparked intense debate.
On the one hand, citizens and security experts alike were concerned that sharing their most sensitive personal information could compromise their privacy, leaving them vulnerable to data breaches and identity theft.
Digital rights advocates also warned that a vague definition of “content that is legal but harmful to minors” will lead to greater online censorship, which could hinder people’s right to freedom of expression and access to information.
In a country like Russia, where Internet censorship is among the strictest in the world, that risk is even greater. This is especially true considering that, as Masharov explained to RIA Novosti, adult-only content will also include videos from bloggers with foul language, scenes of violence and propaganda of antisocial behavior.
Speaking to TechRadar, Russian cyber lawyer and RKS Global expert Sarkis Darbinyan explains that Russia has long used the argument of child protection as a pretext to implement more rigorous information and privacy control practices.
“Internet censorship in Russia began in 2012 with the first law to protect children from harmful information. This essentially opened a Pandora’s box, eventually leading to an incredible expansion of the list of reasons for blocking Internet sites and the establishment of complete state online censorship,” Darbinyan said.
The Kremlin began its goal of deanonymizing each user’s data eight years after the adoption of Putin’s Strategy for the development of the information society until 2030, explains Darbinyan.
“And now, following the example of Western countries that have taken this dangerous and false path, the Russian authorities are trying to completely close the circle of laws that already impose numerous restrictions on private and anonymous online communications,” Darbinian added.
Can a VPN help?
Motivated by their concerns, people in the UK and 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 use across the country, with a law passed in March 2024 that even criminalizes the dissemination of information on how to bypass internet restrictions.
While their use is not completely prohibited, increasingly sophisticated VPN blocking techniques mean that many services may be blocked or limited.
Now, a law against searching for “extremist” content approved last July also makes the use of 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 real tool for civil protest,” Darbinyan said, noting that Roskomnadzor received about $1 billion at the beginning of the year to fight VPNs.
So it’s fair to believe that an age-restricted and anonymized Internet in Russia will go hand in hand with a new crackdown on circumvention tools.
However, “this war has already begun,” Darbinyan said. “A separate initiative to verify age will not make things worse. Russian censorship has become very aggressive even without this.”
