Global Push for Digital ID Verification Gains Momentum

The 'una manola' moves from local oddity to global standard

Age verification for accessing specific websites is no longer an eccentricity of a single country. The demand for digital identification to view adult content has emerged in Australia and Canada, shifting the conversation rapidly: from a niche anecdote to the scaffolding of a general-purpose digital identity system. The trigger was a simple Google search, two news items, and a long-circulating suspicion: what begins as access control for one type of page ends up being the gateway to the entire internet.

Prono is the excuse, not the goal

The initial message makes this clear: while prono is described as "brain poison," that is not the core issue. The real problem is that identifying yourself to view one website is the first step toward identifying yourself to view anything. The underlying thesis suggests that age verification acts as a Trojan horse: it is implemented in the area easiest to justify to public opinion, then extended to social networks, forums, and press.

There is a striking convergence between positions that usually do not align: digital identity is not designed to protect children, but to build a unique user registry. Defenders speak of minor protection; critics point out that a VPN bypasses any age verification, meaning the actual effect is not blocking access, but normalizing identification. The measure does not function as a filter, but as a precedent.

Australia and Canada as labs, Spain as the diligent student

The discussion starts with two concrete cases: Australia and Canada. In Australia, during the pandemic, there were proposals to detain unvaccinated individuals in specific facilities; in Canada, bank accounts of truckers protesting health measures were frozen. These are the two countries repeatedly cited as references for what can be done when the official narrative holds a majority. The comparison is not innocent: if they did it with bank accounts there, it will be done with identity here.

The debate shifts to the timeframe. Agenda 2030 appears as the horizon, and the dominant diagnosis is that digital identity is the infrastructure preceding digital money: without unique identification, there is no programmable currency, and without programmable currency, there is no automatic fine for out-of-range opinions. The sequence drawn is identity, then money, then social credit. Prono is just the first brick.

What about VPNs? The argument that collapses on its own

The technical objection arises quickly: if VPNs and proxies have existed for years, what is the point of the 'una manola'? The prevailing answer is that a VPN solves individual access, not the model. Digital identity does not need anyone to use it to work: it needs to be installed, mandatory for normal operation, and those who do not use it are left outside the system. Those connecting via VPN are not outside; they are on the margin.

There is a calculation circulating that deserves calm consideration: the cost of maintaining anonymous access through tunnels, proxies, and local storage. It is not zero, and it does not scale. The generation currently forming will learn to hide their tracks like learning to drive: out of necessity, not ideology. Paradoxically, this may be the most useful outcome of all this.

The Spanish precedent: NIF for two decades

One of the most uncomfortable contributions to the discussion is the comparison with Spain. Here, the NIF (Tax Identification Number) has functioned as a universal identifier for over twenty years: without it, you cannot open an account, sign before a notary, or operate with a rural savings bank. Digital identity would not be a novelty, but an update of the same principle. Those pointing this out do so not to reassure, but to underline that the ground is already fertile.

The contrast with the United States, United Kingdom, or Australia is disorienting: countries where there is no mandatory identity document and where, precisely because of this, digital identity is presented as an improvement. The official argument is convenience; the real argument is traceability. In Spain, you already pay with your NIF every time you urinate (metaphorically); elsewhere, they are just starting.

Norway, Davos Forum, and synchronization

The conversation expands with Norway, where an equivalent measure has been proposed with the argument of limiting minors' access to social networks. The pattern repeats: same justification, same mechanism, different country. The temporal coincidence of announcements in different jurisdictions feeds the thesis of coordination, although coordination does not require a central committee: it suffices that everyone reads the same report.

The World Economic Forum at Davos is cited as the framework where the concept of digital identity is cooked up. One does not need to subscribe to conspiracy theories to verify that the same ideas appear in the same forums and are implemented on the same calendars. The question is not who orders it, but why so many governments arrive at the same solution at the same time.

The closing that doesn't close

An unanswered question remains: if prono is the first step and digital identity the second, what is the third? No one says, and that silence is the most eloquent part of the matter. Meanwhile, the measure advances in Australia, Canada, Norway, and any country willing to jump on board. Resistance, for now, is organized around VPNs and hard drives. Little against what is coming.