Luckily there are alternatives in the form of code displays and NFC chips. However, next year I won't be able to watch porn unless I verify my age using a smartphone, no alternatives are planned. Or rather, I have the "free choice" to choose between a privacy preserving ZKP solution operating in the kingdom of Google or uploading my face to a porn site.
Dark times.
If I respected the rules, I would starve to death!
(We're not in Denmark, but I wonder how it is going in our jurisdiction ...)
Also, this isn't just about porn. For example, I can barely use Reddit now if I connect with a UK IP address: the merest hint that there might be some NSFW angle to a post is enough to trigger their algorithm into requiring age verification.
Of course you can. The AS numbers of major hosting providers are well known and it is already common practice to ban associated IP addresses for stuff that should only be done by legitimate users.
I assume that in the pornography you've decided to consume, the participants are not clad in balaclavas.
They're showing their faces to everyone, in perpetuity, which many may no longer want to, and - considering the exploitative nature of the pornography industry, where rape is endemic - some didn't consent to in the first place.
So maybe consider that when you're complaining that your own face may be linked with pornography. Is what you're doing ethical? Do you reasonably have any right to complain?
That's probably the issue the other post aludes to. The identity wallet will only be available via Google Play or the Apple App Store (as far as we know). So without a phone and a Google or Apple account, you're won't be able to provide your age information to e.g. PornHub.
Some people tend to demonize porn, and it might be unethical in their eyes, but fact is: it is not illegal (in most countries). I don't argue that there are issues in the porn industry, but this is an issue with the platforms, that they don't allow the upload of non-consentual material, or and have processes to take it down. This is a 'THEIR' problem (the platform not the victims).
There some of these issues also exist in the standard movie and music industry as well. Hell, it even goes up to company executives and politics. But this is up to law enforcement do their job and to remove the illegal stuff and prosecute the involved persons, not by branding everyone as a suspect.
Second, porn is just the beginning. This will also be rolled out to social media, and I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years this will be required in lots of places where children could be exposed to something that politicians find offensive.
That means Netflix et al can (and do) ban everything that even remotely smells like a datacenter IP range and not a residential one, because that is a common method of evading regional bans or undermine pricing structure.
And on top of that... if the focus of your website is humans, you might want to cut off all datacenter originating traffic as well. Save yourself the hassle of dealing with AI scrapers.
For example, there's generally no reason a customer would use their internet banking app with traffic routed via a datacentre other than for the reason you proposed (masking their IP address), so if the bank wants to prevent people doing that then blocking all data centre traffic is an effective way of doing it.
respecting rules is more important that saving your life. /s
MitID is different from the proposed app-based solution for age verification which is designed to not leave a trail. The age verification app will initially be enrolled using MitID (or perhaps by a physical visit to a citizen service point where you can show physical credentials and answer security questions), but subsequent presentations of age verification proofs to service providers will be done without involving a central party.
All in all it is a good design from a privacy perspective. The major issue with it is that ONLY a smartphone based solution is planned, and that there is a high likelihood that it will depend on Play Integrity attestation. This will force everyone to be customers of Google or Apple if they want access to the full internet. I think it is technically possible to also offer alternative solutions based on secure hardware tokens which would still enable people without smartphones to verify their age in a privacy preserving way, but this is not planned.