AV Laws Are Killing Small Sites: My 2025 Protest Plan

I poured my first cup of coffee this morning, ready to dive into some updates for my small, passion-project website about vintage synthesizers. It’s not a money-maker. It’s a labor of love, a community hub for a niche I’m deeply passionate about. But instead of writing about the warmth of a Moog filter, a cold dread washed over me. A notification reminded me of the upcoming compliance deadline for a new state-level Age Verification (AV) law. And just like that, the future of my little corner of the internet felt impossibly heavy.

This isn’t just my story. It’s the story of thousands of small site owners, bloggers, forum administrators, and independent creators who are being pushed to the brink. Well-intentioned laws, supposedly designed to protect children, are being implemented with a sledgehammer approach that threatens to crush the very soul of the independent web. They demand a level of financial, technical, and legal infrastructure that is simply out of reach for anyone who isn’t a mega-corporation.

This is not a theoretical problem; it’s an existential threat. And I’ve decided I can’t just sit back and watch the internet I grew up with get sanitized, centralized, and closed off. This is my line in the sand. Here’s why these laws are so dangerous, and what I’m planning to do about it in 2025.

The Elephant in the Room: What Are These AV Laws?

On the surface, the goal sounds noble. Legislators, responding to genuine concerns about protecting minors online, are passing laws requiring websites with "harmful" or "adult" content to verify the age of their users. The problem is that the definition of what constitutes such content is often incredibly broad and vague. Could a detailed discussion of a historical war be deemed too violent? Could an art history site showing classical nudes be flagged? Could a health forum discussing puberty fall under the umbrella?

The answer is a terrifying, "Maybe?" This ambiguity forces site owners to err on the side of caution. To comply, you can't just add a simple "Are you over 18?" checkbox. These laws demand robust, often invasive, verification methods:

• Government ID Scanning: Requiring users to upload a driver's license or passport to a third-party service.
• Biometric Analysis: Using facial scanning technology to estimate a user's age.
• Credit Card Verification: Using payment information as a proxy for age, which excludes anyone without a credit card.

These aren't simple plugins you can install in five minutes. They are complex, expensive systems that fundamentally change the relationship between a website and its visitors from one of open access to one of guarded suspicion.

The True Cost for the Little Guy

For a company like Google or Meta, implementing age verification is just another line item in a multi-billion dollar budget. For a small site owner, it’s a death sentence. The disparity is staggering.

Financial Ruin

Third-party verification services aren't free. They often charge a per-check fee, anywhere from $0.50 to over $2.00 per user. My synth site gets about 5,000 unique visitors a month. If I had to verify every new visitor, I could be looking at thousands of dollars in monthly fees for a site that barely makes enough to cover its own hosting. It’s simply not sustainable.

The Privacy Nightmare

Let's be honest: would you upload your driver's license to a random blog about synthesizers? Of course not. You have no idea who I am, how I store my data, or how secure my little corner of the web is. These laws force small creators to ask for deeply personal data from their users, creating an enormous privacy risk and a huge liability. A single data breach could be financially and reputationally catastrophic for a small operator. It turns every passion project into a high-stakes data security operation.

This Isn't Just Our Problem - It's Everyone's

If you're not a site owner, you might be tempted to think this doesn't affect you. But the consequences of these laws will reshape the entire internet, and not for the better.

First, it leads to the centralization of the web. When only the largest platforms can afford to comply, users will be pushed away from the rich, diverse ecosystem of independent sites and into the walled gardens of a few tech giants. The weird, wonderful, and niche communities that make the internet special will wither and die.

Second, it creates a massive chilling effect on speech. Faced with the risk of crippling fines or legal battles over vaguely defined "harmful" content, many creators will simply self-censor or shut down altogether. This erodes the internet's role as a place for open discussion, debate, and the exploration of complex ideas.

Finally, it destroys anonymity and pseudonymity, which have always been vital tools for whistleblowers, activists, and individuals in marginalized communities seeking information and support without fear of reprisal. An internet where every door has a bouncer checking ID is not a free or open internet.

The Plan: A Digital Protest for a Free Internet

I refuse to let my site—and countless others—be legislated out of existence. It's time to stop complaining and start organizing. Here is my proposed plan for a coordinated protest in 2025. I invite every small site owner, developer, and internet user who values a free and open web to join me.

Step 1: The Digital Blackout (March 15th, 2025)

On March 15th, 2025, I will be replacing the homepage of my website with a single protest page. This page will explain, in simple terms, how AV laws are threatening our existence and will direct visitors to resources to contact their elected officials. I urge other small site owners to do the same. A united front, even for one day, will show the world what the internet looks like when the little guys are silenced.

Step 2: Make Your Voice Heard

Politicians need to hear from us directly. We will create a simple, one-page resource (I'll be building this at a public URL to be announced) with tools to find your local representatives and a pre-written but customizable email/letter template. The message will be clear: "We support protecting children, but one-size-fits-all AV laws are the wrong approach. We need solutions that don't destroy the independent web."

Step 3: The Social Media Storm

On the day of the blackout, we will flood social media with our stories. Using a unified hashtag like #SaveTheIndieWeb, we will share our experiences as creators, developers, and users. We'll post screenshots of our favorite small sites, talk about the communities we'll lose, and highlight the absurdity of the challenges we face. We need to make this issue personal and impossible to ignore.

Conclusion: Don't Let Them Pave Paradise

The internet was built on the promise of open access and permissionless innovation. It allowed someone like me, with nothing more than a bit of knowledge and a lot of passion, to build a space and connect with people from all over the world. That is a beautiful, powerful thing.

These heavy-handed AV laws, however well-intentioned, threaten to turn that vibrant, chaotic, and creative landscape into a sterile, corporate-owned shopping mall. We cannot let that happen. The fight for the future of the internet isn't going to be won by the big players—they'll be fine either way. It's up to us, the small creators, the hobbyists, the users, the builders. It's up to you and me.

Join me on March 15th. Let's save the indie web.