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.
this would be the ideal, but the problem is that we dont have governments that can be trusted to not abuse the system. It will turn into tool of control and surveillance even if it starts well.
Before this can even be considered, we need ways to depose shitty politicans and governments without having to destroy everything in the process. Just “voting the good guys in” does not work and has never worked.