Online threats to children are real, but the headlong pursuit of age verification that we’re seeing around the world is unacceptable in its approach and far too broad in scope — and we simply can’t afford to get this wrong.
To be clear, parents’ concerns are valid and sincere. Few people would argue that kids should have unfettered access to adult material, to self-harm how-tos, to social media platforms that manipulate them and expose them to abuse.
But it’s the very depth of those worries that is being cynically exploited. Age verification as is currently being proposed in country after country would mean the death of anonymity online.
And we know exactly who stands to gain: The same tech giants who built the privacy nightmare that the internet is today.
I’d be ok with age verification if it can be done in an anonyomous way.
Nym’s coconut credentials could do this.
https://constructiveproof.com/posts/2020-03-24-nym-credentials-overview/
Of course the people pushing for this won’t try to do it that way because protecting the children isn’t really their motive. Surveillance is and something like coconut creds would render that moot.
People lost their shit over a local API with an easily fake-able age bracket.
The problem with hyperventilating over everything, is that there is no benefit to even trying to write reasonable laws as they get painted dishonestly anyway.