Online threats to children are real, but the headlong pursuit of age verification that we’re seeing around the world is unacceptable in its approach and far too broad in scope — and we simply can’t afford to get this wrong.
To be clear, parents’ concerns are valid and sincere. Few people would argue that kids should have unfettered access to adult material, to self-harm how-tos, to social media platforms that manipulate them and expose them to abuse.
But it’s the very depth of those worries that is being cynically exploited. Age verification as is currently being proposed in country after country would mean the death of anonymity online.
And we know exactly who stands to gain: The same tech giants who built the privacy nightmare that the internet is today.
You don’t have to look at my post history to see that I think “ending online anonymity will have positive effect on democracy”. The fastest way for VOX to take power is by spewing disinformation. All the anti-EU parties are founded by russia and online anonymity is one of the most important tools they are using. End it and their job will get more difficult, not easier.
Not just that. We’ve seen how parties like that take over and radicalize themselves in Poland and Hungary. I’m from Poland so I know very well how people fought back there. I wasn’t by hiding their identity online. It was by using free press to expose government’s corruption and by organizing legal, massive protests in the public. The idea that online anonymity helps preserve democracy is not just fantasy, it’s the exact opposite of what we’re seeing in real life.