We must keep age verification from killing anonymity online | Proton
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Powerful forces are exploiting parents’ fears to strengthen their toxic business models. Here’s how we stop them.

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.

  • Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    Na bro social media is nothing like credit score. You’re totally fine not having facebook, all these municipalities have websites, you don’t need social media for anything.

    And even credit scores, you just want it for like two years before buying a home, it’s no problem at all especially in contrast to the challenge of actually saving up enough money to buy a home.

    State officials have been searching for a kind of uniform, iron-clad, easily verifiable public ID for ages

    What are you talking about? People have been voting, paying taxes, applying for driver’s licenses, for ages online, they all have usernames and passwords with uploaded proof of ID for their online government transactions.