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A system to verify age is not needed. Simply making it illegal and holding parents accountable is enough. It's one of those things where perfection is the enem

by _8j50 4y ago

A system to verify age is not needed. Simply making it illegal and holding parents accountable is enough. It's one of those things where perfection is the enemy of good. Some kids will do it anyways but parents can install hard to remove monitoring software on devices and the penalty can be similar to a somewhat serious traffic citation.

hnlmorg 4y ago
We haven’t had a good track record in recent years of businesses honouring the spirit of the law. For example cookie consent banners with horrible dark patterns aren’t necessary to operate in the EU but some companies feel this is a better approach than reducing the amount of data they harvest. Likewise some companies will see this new legislation as an excuse to collect more data too. The fact that a lot of social networks require or request phone numbers “for security” rather than TOTP codes (for example) is another such example of how data collection is hidden behind “safety”.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
cykros 4y ago
I'd love to live in a town with these parents with superpowers you envision. In my town, people look at me like I have 3 heads when I explain we've enabled Microsoft's Family Link on our son's computer and that screen time rules make it so he just can't use it after bedtime, which is why unlike their kids, he's not up til 2 am. Installing software? How about just using what's already there and begging you to use it. Forget about showing credentials to use social media. The issue here may be needing credentials to breed -- but, you know, who watches the watchmen?
- _8j50 4y ago
  That's not a problem, device makers and carriers would gladly sell you all that and even install it if it isn't already. And that software isn't needed if they're a good parent that can actually tell their kid stuff and their kid trusts them enough to do that.
MagicMoonlight 4y ago
Parents don’t do that and nobody is going to be able to enforce a law specifically against them
- _8j50 4y ago
  It can be enforced when other parents,teachers,etc... find out. I will give you all an example, cyberbullying is illegal right? Yet it happens a lot but making it illegal and when caught, punishing offending kids has reduced the volume (where such laws exist). No ominous backdoor involved.
  - endisneigh 4y ago
    > Yet it happens a lot but making it illegal and when caught, punishing offending kids has reduced the volume (where such laws exist). No ominous backdoor involved. Source?
htag 4y ago
1. Start asking the software engineers in your company about their experience with parental control software as a teenager. Me, and all my friends, had clever bypasses on several systems. In addition, this type of story seems to be very common. 2. The amount of teenage smoking/drinking/drug use is pretty considerable. This is even true if you select for involved parents. Shouldn't parents focus be on preventing these? If parents can't stop this, why would they be able to stop social media? 3. Without age verification, how would you know someone on social media is underage? 4. Wouldn't this disproportionality punish lower income families, and richer families could more easily pay the fine?

by _8j50 4y ago

hnlmorg 4y ago

We haven’t had a good track record in recent years of businesses honouring the spirit of the law. For example cookie consent banners with horrible dark patterns aren’t necessary to operate in the EU but some companies feel this is a better approach than reducing the amount of data they harvest. Likewise some companies will see this new legislation as an excuse to collect more data too. The fact that a lot of social networks require or request phone numbers “for security” rather than TOTP codes (for example) is another such example of how data collection is hidden behind “safety”.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

cykros 4y ago

I'd love to live in a town with these parents with superpowers you envision. In my town, people look at me like I have 3 heads when I explain we've enabled Microsoft's Family Link on our son's computer and that screen time rules make it so he just can't use it after bedtime, which is why unlike their kids, he's not up til 2 am. Installing software? How about just using what's already there and begging you to use it. Forget about showing credentials to use social media. The issue here may be needing credentials to breed -- but, you know, who watches the watchmen?

_8j50 4y ago
That's not a problem, device makers and carriers would gladly sell you all that and even install it if it isn't already. And that software isn't needed if they're a good parent that can actually tell their kid stuff and their kid trusts them enough to do that.

MagicMoonlight 4y ago

Parents don’t do that and nobody is going to be able to enforce a law specifically against them

_8j50 4y ago
It can be enforced when other parents,teachers,etc... find out. I will give you all an example, cyberbullying is illegal right? Yet it happens a lot but making it illegal and when caught, punishing offending kids has reduced the volume (where such laws exist). No ominous backdoor involved.
- endisneigh 4y ago
  > Yet it happens a lot but making it illegal and when caught, punishing offending kids has reduced the volume (where such laws exist). No ominous backdoor involved. Source?

htag 4y ago

1. Start asking the software engineers in your company about their experience with parental control software as a teenager. Me, and all my friends, had clever bypasses on several systems. In addition, this type of story seems to be very common. 2. The amount of teenage smoking/drinking/drug use is pretty considerable. This is even true if you select for involved parents. Shouldn't parents focus be on preventing these? If parents can't stop this, why would they be able to stop social media? 3. Without age verification, how would you know someone on social media is underage? 4. Wouldn't this disproportionality punish lower income families, and richer families could more easily pay the fine?