Genuine question: Do you support the age verification laws, or do you oppose them but think it is futile to stop them; which position do you hold?
What many people are misinformed about in regard to age verification technology are
- steered into thinking that it is the best and only solution
- insufficiently informed about the harms that it would likely bring to the internet
I say “likely” because no one knows what the end result would be yet, but in all likelihood it will lead to erosion of privacy and freedom, one that (like this thread suggests) would broaden in scope over time. My guess is the vast majority of people would submit to ID/face scans as the most convenient method, and privacy-respecting solutions would exist only at the fringes. I fear age verification technology will cause cultural harm by normalizing permission culture and outsourcing of responsibility.
These laws are being drafted and introduced based on technologies that aren’t yet decided on nor proven. Even if hypothetically age verification were the best solution, the first step ought to be to specify, design, implement, test and pilot the technology, and only then introduce the legal framework. Instead, the reverse is happening, which brings uncertainty about the effects the law will have.
I say “misinformed” only because that’s the word that others here used, but as in many past erosions of privacy and freedom, “disinformed” and “uninformed” are more fitting. The same process of governments creating an agenda, fabricating a boogey man that rationalizes their agenda, creating a policy that fits their agenda and spreading their policy to the masses is happening with age verification technology.
You may be right in saying most people (rightfully I would add) don’t want minors to watch adult content online, but that doesn’t mean those majority people are right to demand mandatory age verification, nor to outsource their parenting/supervision of minors to governments and corporations. Might doesn’t make right.