3 ms·

This seems like it would have been a great idea about thirty years ago, but would be functionally impossible to even try to enforce working from scratch today.

mattmanser 4y ago
How would it be functionally impossible? At one point kids could buy cigarettes. Now, across hundreds of thousands of stores, they can't. There's only a few social media sites, it's seems infinitely easier. Trivial even.
- woodruffw 4y ago
  When you buy cigarettes in a store, you normally get carded. It stands to reason that an equivalent online system would require a similar online solution; most people are not particularly enthused by the idea of having to present an ID to consume any information that could potentially considered to fall under “social media.”
  - mattmanser 4y ago
    They already card you in most social media apps. This is like saying "oh no, they want you to use your real identity". It's already a part of the process. This is incredibly destructive and addictive stuff. The days of the wild west of the internet are over.
    - woodruffw 4y ago
      I’m not aware of any major social media site that makes users present a government issued ID during their normal registration flow. They might require it for registrations that trigger a fraud or similar alert, but it’s certainly not the norm. If you want to get rid of a destructive and addictive thing, maybe it would be more effective to just advocate for that. Requiring a government ID and government categorization of every site on the Internet is not likely to accomplish what you want.
      - mattmanser 4y ago
        These days they aggressively get rid of fake accounts, they're doing everything but requiring id. So the only effective thing would be to put it behind a government id check. The reality is we've relied "on the parents" to police devices and it hasn't worked at all. it's too much to ask them to do, the internet is too vast and too chaotic. The onus needs to be put onto the companies. Requiring a government id is all there is, it's the solution.
        woodruffw 4y ago
        I think it's worth asking yourself whether you really want a government database to know (which, by necessity, it will) each time you access a website.
- cultureswitch 4y ago
  Requiring every social network to get proof of age for every user would in practice mean destroying the little user privacy that was left. On top of that, the worldwide leader in age verification software is none other than mindgeek, the porn giant. This kind of law would effectively give this company a file with the official ID and complete social network usage pattern of everyone above 13 in the country.
- john_the_writer 4y ago
  If you went to the store and instead of looking at your ID, the scanned it and posted it on their website, would you agree? Would you be okay asking a 14 year old to post their ID online? I suspect your answer would be no to both. Don't think for a second you scanning your ID and providing it to facebook/twitter/youtube would be at all safe.
runnerup 4y ago
Ah, yes, the famous social network platforms of 1993. More to the point, <13 year olds have been effectively outlawed from social media platforms since 1998 due to COPPA. It hasn't really stopped kids though. They just, go on the internet and lie.
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago
  The equivalent talkers were a thing in 1993. I found them using gopher in the library my first year of university. Anyone else here remember Somewhere Else? I do remember lots of underaged girls and boys (but no one under 13, I think) on there.
- Scoundreller 4y ago
  I didn't need to lie on newsgroups back then!
kaetemi 4y ago
The trick used to be just requiring a valid credit card.
- zarzavat 4y ago
  Many adults don’t have credit cards (like me). Many kids have do have physical access to their parent’s credit cards.

mattmanser 4y ago

How would it be functionally impossible? At one point kids could buy cigarettes. Now, across hundreds of thousands of stores, they can't. There's only a few social media sites, it's seems infinitely easier. Trivial even.

woodruffw 4y ago
When you buy cigarettes in a store, you normally get carded. It stands to reason that an equivalent online system would require a similar online solution; most people are not particularly enthused by the idea of having to present an ID to consume any information that could potentially considered to fall under “social media.”
- mattmanser 4y ago
  They already card you in most social media apps. This is like saying "oh no, they want you to use your real identity". It's already a part of the process. This is incredibly destructive and addictive stuff. The days of the wild west of the internet are over.
  - woodruffw 4y ago
    I’m not aware of any major social media site that makes users present a government issued ID during their normal registration flow. They might require it for registrations that trigger a fraud or similar alert, but it’s certainly not the norm. If you want to get rid of a destructive and addictive thing, maybe it would be more effective to just advocate for that. Requiring a government ID and government categorization of every site on the Internet is not likely to accomplish what you want.
    - mattmanser 4y ago
      These days they aggressively get rid of fake accounts, they're doing everything but requiring id. So the only effective thing would be to put it behind a government id check. The reality is we've relied "on the parents" to police devices and it hasn't worked at all. it's too much to ask them to do, the internet is too vast and too chaotic. The onus needs to be put onto the companies. Requiring a government id is all there is, it's the solution.
      - woodruffw 4y ago
        I think it's worth asking yourself whether you really want a government database to know (which, by necessity, it will) each time you access a website.
cultureswitch 4y ago
Requiring every social network to get proof of age for every user would in practice mean destroying the little user privacy that was left. On top of that, the worldwide leader in age verification software is none other than mindgeek, the porn giant. This kind of law would effectively give this company a file with the official ID and complete social network usage pattern of everyone above 13 in the country.
john_the_writer 4y ago
If you went to the store and instead of looking at your ID, the scanned it and posted it on their website, would you agree? Would you be okay asking a 14 year old to post their ID online? I suspect your answer would be no to both. Don't think for a second you scanning your ID and providing it to facebook/twitter/youtube would be at all safe.

runnerup 4y ago

Ah, yes, the famous social network platforms of 1993. More to the point, <13 year olds have been effectively outlawed from social media platforms since 1998 due to COPPA. It hasn't really stopped kids though. They just, go on the internet and lie.

seanmcdirmid 4y ago
The equivalent talkers were a thing in 1993. I found them using gopher in the library my first year of university. Anyone else here remember Somewhere Else? I do remember lots of underaged girls and boys (but no one under 13, I think) on there.
Scoundreller 4y ago
I didn't need to lie on newsgroups back then!

kaetemi 4y ago

The trick used to be just requiring a valid credit card.

zarzavat 4y ago
Many adults don’t have credit cards (like me). Many kids have do have physical access to their parent’s credit cards.