Lazia, 23 May 2026 — The government has introduced the Ethical Gooning Initiative (EGI), a framework offering privacy-preserving age verification to adults using regulated digital content.
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TECHNOLOGY Mahuset launches privacy-preserving age-verification cards
The Ethical Gooning Initiative decouples age checks from identity.
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The scheme provides a purchasable verification mechanism as an alternative to direct identity authentication through official state documents or financial systems.
Residents may buy five-use EGI verification cards for ƒ25. They will be sold at Vicesysteem stores — the state monopoly modelled on Sweden's Systembolaget, and the sole legal vendor of soft drugs, legal hard drugs, nitrous oxide and ketamine — as well as through the MNU University Store and selected partnered retailers.
The initiative responds to concern about data security and the spread of identity-based age checks across digital platforms. Users can at present verify their age with a national identity card or passport, through the state's id.mi authentication system, or by means of Giroporte, the Mahusetan digital payments infrastructure.
Officials said those systems were secure but involved the transmission or storage of personal data, which in some contexts exposed users to unnecessary privacy risk.
The card system decouples age verification from identity verification. Each card holds a limited number of anonymous validation tokens that confirm a user is 18 or older without disclosing a name, address, national identification number or financial details. The card becomes invalid once all five uses are spent.
The Ministry for General Affairs said the programme reflected a commitment to "harm reduction, digital dignity, and data minimisation". Placing distribution within the Vicesysteem network, which is already responsible for regulated substances, is intended to keep verification tools under controlled retail supervision while avoiding any new centralised identity database.
Implementation begins later this month. The ministry said uptake and technical performance would be assessed before the programme was expanded.