The Year States Chose Surveillance Over Safety: 2025 in Review

2025 was the year age verification went from a fringe policy experiment to a sweeping reality across the United States. Half of the U.S. now mandates age verification for accessing adult content or social media platforms. Nine states saw their laws take effect this year alone, with more coming in 2026. The good news is that courts have blocked many of the laws seeking to impose age-verification gates on social media, largely for the same reasons that EFF opposes these efforts. Age-verification measures censor the internet and burden access to online speech. Though age-verification mandates are often touted as "online safety" measures for young people, the laws actually do more harm than good. They undermine the fundamental speech rights of adults and young people alike, create new barriers to internet access, and put at risk all internet users' privacy, anonymity, and security. If you're feeling overwhelmed by this onslaught of laws and the invasive technologies behind them,