4 ms·

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

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 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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.

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 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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.