When I was 8, I remember being bored and curious and touching a lot of parents stuff… phones… wallets… legal documents…
Most parents don’t put their stuff in safes…
Like… THE WALLET IS RIGHT THERE… I COULD JUST GRAB IT!
If they had age verification stuff back then… I could’ve just… quickly snap a pic of their ID and just YOLO it…
Oops I fed a troll. Imagine anyone not telling the whole truth! Heavens to betsy, the inhumanity!
I understand this argument with US politicians, and especially the Republicans, who can all be assumed to be in the pocket of big business, but I don’t think you’ve gone through any of the UK politicians in support of this to see what their business connections are, never mind the majority of them. For example, pulling the first MP I found speaking in favour of age verification on Hansard, what makes you think Iqbal Mohamed is in this for the benefit of data brokers? (He’s not a Labour MP, I should say) Have you ever heard of him before today? What about Lewis Atkinson, who also supports age verification? His job before politics was in the NHS.
There is this extreme cognitive dissonance about this debate, where people are unable to deny the obvious truth that, unlike us, most people are in favour of age-verification regulations, yet insist that this simply does not feature in the motivations of politicians in implementing such regulations.
I’m not a troll. I’m not naïve. But I am also not so idiotically cynical as to believe that the motivations of politicians are wholly based on servitude to business, wholly divorced from the motivations of the general public even when those motivations align.
The law does nothing but push adults and underage users to unregulated platforms. They (the general public and the politicians) don’t understand the internet. You don’t understand the internet if you think this accomplishes anything. The only way for children to be safe on the internet is by educating their parents.
This is binary thinking and is false. The law does do something by putting up an obstacle to seeing porn. Hundreds of thousands of children are seeing porn by accident, way before they are ready, not because they’re horny little teenagers. Yes, those who are highly motivated will find it, but you should not be this absolute.
The cost of this law in privacy violation is not worth the benefit it brings to children. But it still does bring a benefit, and you’re unlikely to convince anyone if you can’t see where they’re coming from on that.
If you think it’s a benefit, pushing everyone to use less moderated platforms then sure. You clearly don’t understand the internet. If you click a link and are exprected to show a video with your ID and face visible, what do you do? I say it is extremely dangerous and criminal for a government to demand this from their citizens. So many people will have their identity stolen, I guarantee it, it’s already happening and will get much worse. https://www.rstreet.org/commentary/25-percent-of-kids-will-face-identity-theft-before-turning-18-age-verification-laws-will-make-this-worse/
This isn’t really about the internet; it’s about human psychology. If you make something more difficult, fewer people will do it. Especially people who are doing it by accident. Kids aren’t going out and accidentally downloading a VPN client.
I made it clear that I don’t think it’s a benefit overall
Ever applied for a bank account online? I am certainly used to handing over identifiable information. I do it carefully.