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.
The way you confuse basic concepts is amazing. I use encryption, I use e2e encrypted communicators and I don´t use social media but for you, just because I don´t support anonymity on said social media (which people are free to use or not) I “don’t have anything to hide”. And you’re argument to show that my ideas are bad for democracy is… slippery slope. Well, I followed closely what happened in Poland and Hungary over the last decade and I know that it was not anonymous comments online that saved democracy in those countries. But for people like you fantasy solutions solve fantasy problems. So you’re right, we won’t agree.