It is a silent countdown, but destined to change the habits of millions of Italian users. From November 12th, anyone who attempts to access platforms such as Pornhub, OnlyFans, betting sites, alcohol or cigarette sales sites will first have to prove that they are of age. No longer an impulsive click, but a certified, almost ritual step. Agcom, the Communications Authority, has chosen to introduce a system Age verification required which transforms the anonymity of the web into a new form of controlled identity.
It is the first time this has happened in Italy and it is not a small experiment. The rule – approved in the spring and ready to come into force after six months of adaptation – marks one political, cultural and technological turning point: what some already call “the digital license of pleasure”.
The “pleasure license” and a changing Italy
The declared objective is clear: to protect minors. But the language with which it is done tells something deeper. The society that until yesterday was outraged by a queer kiss in prime time now demands that every click be certified, filed and verified. A revolution that disguises itself as protection, but which actually redefines the very concept of online freedom.
The system envisaged by Agcom is based on the intervention of independent and certified third partieswho will have to provide proof of age without revealing who is behind the screen. Two steps for each login: identification And authentication. First you prove yourself to be over eighteen; then he confirms that he really is who he claims to be. All through dedicated apps or digital wallets, similar to those used for SPID or CIE.
How the “digital pleasure license” works
On the surface, it is a simple mechanism. In reality, it is one of the most complex digital architectures ever introduced in Italy. The system developed by Agcom includes two mandatory and distinct phases: identification And authentication.
In the first step, the user must prove that they are of age via independent third parties and certificates, which act as guarantors of the legitimacy of the process. It is not the site that checks the visitor’s age, but an accredited external body that provides digital proof of age. He is a sort of notary of pleasure, in charge of saying “yes, this person can come in”.
The second phase, that of authentication, serves to confirm that whoever is logging in at that moment is really the same person who passed the initial check. A double step designed to prevent the improper use of other people’s profiles, but which transforms access to an adult site into a small digital obstacle course.
Everything happens through dedicated apps, digital wallets or electronic identity systems connected to SPID or CIE. Some platforms, in the future, will be able to directly integrate verification into the browser or operating system. Others, however, will require connection to an external portal: a window that opens, asks for confirmation, verifies age and authorizes entry. A technological ritual that combines bureaucracy and desire, in an almost poetic paradox.
In theory, it is an armored system: the sites will not know who you are, and those who verify your age will not know where you are entering. It is the so-called principle of “double anonymity”the formula on which the entire framework of the reform is based. A promise of absolute privacy which, at least on paper, should reassure even the most wary.
In practice, however, the issue is more subtle. Because if on the one hand anonymity is guaranteed, on the other a new theme opens up: that of technological trust. Who keeps the data? Where do the digital traces left during the procedure end up? And what will happen if, one day, that system is extended to other areas – from video games to e-commerce and social networks?
In a country where every digital document triggers mistrust and every QR code is perceived as a threat to freedom, it is easy to imagine that even pleasure ends up becoming a matter of certification. Curiosity must be declared, access justified, desire verified. And perhaps it is precisely here that the “digital pleasure licence” stops being just a technical experiment and becomes the symbol of an era in which even intimacy needs a stamp.
Between privacy and paradoxes
On paper, the system is secure and respectful of personal data. In practice, it opens up a series of paradoxes. Who will guarantee that third parties are truly “independent”? And above all: how far we are willing to give up pieces of intimacy in the name of digital security?
The line is thin. On the one hand, there is the need to protect minors from explicit content or gambling platforms. On the other hand, there is the fear of a future in which every wish will have to be authorized by an algorithm. It is the end of the romantic anonymity of the web, which in the 2000s had transformed the internet into a laboratory of personal freedom and transgression.
Today everything passes through the filter of digital identity. And with age verification, curiosity, sexuality and consumption also become certified data.
Europe observes (and judges)
Italy arrives last, but arrives at the hottest moment. In France, failure to comply with age verification is already grounds for total blocking of porn sitesa measure as drastic as it is ineffective: the younger ones have simply learned to use VPNs or foreign browsers.
In Brussels, the European Commission observes the Italian case as a political test: can protection become a model of control? Agcom calls it “experimentation”, but in fact it is a dress rehearsal for a regulated future in which every access, every click, every form of pleasure will be mediated by a digital certificate.
The United Kingdom has already been through this (and not without controversy)
This is not an isolated experiment. In the United Kingdom the measure is already activeintroduced as part of theOnline Safety Actthe law that required pornographic sites to verify the age of visitors. Today, to access platforms such as Pornhub or RedTube, British users must demonstrate that they are at least eighteen years old through a certified provider or a digital document.
The objective is the same as in Italy: protect minorsbut the outcome has opened a fierce debate. Many sites have temporarily blocked content in the United Kingdom, while several experts have denounced the risk of “desire filing”, with databases capable of cross-referencing sensitive data and consumption habits.
Yet London pushed ahead, transforming access to pleasure into a regulated and traceable gesture. An experiment that Rome decided to follow, adapting it to the European model and presenting it as “controlled experimentation”. But the boundaries, as often happens, are blurred: when a rule works, it quickly becomes law.
The future of pleasure (and power)
What opens on November 12th is not a technical debate, but an epochal transition: whoever controls access controls desire. The web was born as a territory of absolute freedom, today it becomes a monitored space, where trust is replaced by access codes and digital proof of age.
Ultimately, pleasure remains a universal language, but from today it will have to learn to speak the lexicon of bureaucracy: PIN, QR code, SPID, CIE. And perhaps, right there, in that new grammar of desire, the most profound transformation of our era is measured: it’s no longer just about surfing, but about being allowed to do so.
From November 12th, pleasure will still be a right. But you will need a document to prove it.
