Age verification proposals are often presented as a simple tradeoff: sacrifice a little privacy to better safeguard children online. But that framing overlooks a more fundamental question. What happens to people who cannot verify their age at all?
It is. You’re using social media right now. So is IRC if you think about it. Anything with a “message component” that “exchanges user submitted information between other users” or whatever can be classified as social media.
Under that definition, it’s very easy to group things such as forums, github/gitlab/whatever. Now you can’t even voice complaints or get and help build source code to resist.
Fuck age verification laws. Anything less than calling it encroachment on liberty and democracy itself is boot licking.
I know what social media is. You are painting a strawman of how the laws might get abused with further law which nobody is suggesting, aside from fear mongerers like you. And while focusing on that straw man you completely ignore the very real problems that social media brought into the world.
Nevertheless, even if you were right, the internet is still much larger.
It is. You’re using social media right now. So is IRC if you think about it. Anything with a “message component” that “exchanges user submitted information between other users” or whatever can be classified as social media.
Under that definition, it’s very easy to group things such as forums, github/gitlab/whatever. Now you can’t even voice complaints or get and help build source code to resist.
Fuck age verification laws. Anything less than calling it encroachment on liberty and democracy itself is boot licking.
I know what social media is. You are painting a strawman of how the laws might get abused with further law which nobody is suggesting, aside from fear mongerers like you. And while focusing on that straw man you completely ignore the very real problems that social media brought into the world.
Nevertheless, even if you were right, the internet is still much larger.