New U.S laws designed to protect minors are pulling millions of adult Americans into mandatory age-verification gates to access online content, leading to backlash from users and criticism from privacy advocates that a free and open internet is at stake. Roughly half of U.S. states have enacted or are advancing laws requiring platforms — including adult content sites, online gaming services, and social media apps — to block underage users, forcing companies to screen everyone who approaches these digital gates.
As I’ve said elsewhere, yes in a perfect world it would be on the parents to enforce this, but that doesn’t mean we should do nothing on the social media side. It’s also the parents responsibility to prevent underage drinking and smoking, yet we still restrict those at the point of sale.
I’m for age restrictions on social media, and yes there are arguments against it, but I’m not really interested in having that conversation.
This is exactly what I take issue with. It’s a false dilemma. The assertion that you can’t have age verification without the invasion of privacy and destroying online anonymity in the process IS FALSE. You CAN have both. THIS is the grift in my opinion.