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.
Yawn. You sound like the lobbyists. They want ID to control us, to selectively spread more misinformation.
Nobody will be able to criticize the government, you will be targeted. The bots promoting fascism are the same ones spreading bullshit like this to push for the fascist non-anonymous internet.
It sounds like you shouldnt be using the internet at all.
You sound like a conspiracy theorist. Where I live people are criticizing the government every day. We have opposition parties, activist and unions. We have reporters uncovering corrupt politicians all the time, on all levels of government. The politicians are prosecuted and reporters keep reporting. They all act in the open, not by posting anonymous comments on twitter. As I said, if you live in a country where the government will target you for posting wrong comment then you should totally oppose those law (but your opposition will be meaningless because you already don’t live in a free country). Those laws are not global, each country will introduce them on their own. Where I live, ending online anonymity will have positive effect on democracy.
Get outta here fascist.
And that’s a great example of what people use online anonymity for and why I’m not a fan.
Do you really think no one in this thread would call you a dumb fascist to your face?
No, I know there are a lot of kids here. I’m not surprised, I’m just saying that it shows why age verification is a good thing.
Oh do you keep willfully hanging out with a bunch of kids? Nonce fascist.
Do your homework, child.
We know, fascist.
“You sound like a conspiracy theorist” such low effort way to wave away another point.
You sound like a fucking fascist then.
You missed the rest of my comment where I explained why I think that. This or you don’t know what ‘wave away’ means.
From what I see in your post history you seem to be spanish, you had a fascist dictature just 50 years ago. Do you really think that your current system will never change? That there will never be a point in time where parties like VOX take power and radicalize themselves even more? That they will never control the media with the support of fascist billionaires?
You don’t have to look at my post history to see that I think “ending online anonymity will have positive effect on democracy”. The fastest way for VOX to take power is by spewing disinformation. All the anti-EU parties are founded by russia and online anonymity is one of the most important tools they are using. End it and their job will get more difficult, not easier.
Not just that. We’ve seen how parties like that take over and radicalize themselves in Poland and Hungary. I’m from Poland so I know very well how people fought back there. I wasn’t by hiding their identity online. It was by using free press to expose government’s corruption and by organizing legal, massive protests in the public. The idea that online anonymity helps preserve democracy is not just fantasy, it’s the exact opposite of what we’re seeing in real life.