alt Hacker NewsThe rhetoric I often see online is forcing children to identify themselves which, obviously leads to adults being required to identify themselves.
How do adults declare themselves as adults without teenagers claiming to be adults also?
It’s all complicated, but I am exhausted from reading doom articles of how the UK wants adults to not exist online while trying to force children offline for their own existence and long term health..
It’s worth me noting that I’m extremely liberal, but I’ve admittedly been failing to see how we keep children safe online without forcing identity of adulthood. We do not allow teens to buy cigarettes or vapes based on vibes either, right?
(please correct or roast me, I really am struggling with this and am tired of reading refutes that are not productive)
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In my view, it’s very simple. There are places like schools, or parents buying phone plans, to identify children. Will some children get access outside of that? Sure. But 100% enforcement isn’t possible even if you thought it was worth destroying privacy on the internet.
> How do adults declare themselves as adults without teenagers claiming to be adults also?
It's pretty much impossible, so we should stop trying. It's exhausting seeing politicians et al continue to push for age verification despite it being impossible to be even remotely effective. (I hedge because technically we could demand photo ID for every HTTP request, I guess, but I don't think that's ever going to happen.)
The best we can do is ask parents to raise their children themselves and teach children to be mindful online (as we expect them to be IRL).