> So what is the problem? [...] It’s not a win for adults
But isn't that exactly the problem? What are you confused about? You think there's no issue with violating the privacy of all adults as long as children are unaffected?
But isn't that exactly the problem? What are you confused about? You think there's no issue with violating the privacy of all adults as long as children are unaffected?
> I've always taught my children never to use their real names online. Precisely to avoid creeps. Mandatory age verification means mandatory identification.
“Adults shouldn’t have to reveal their identities” is a totally legitimate concern. It’s also very different from the child scenario in this case because the entire point of revealing the identity is to gain access to features a child should not have access to.
This view also makes a mockery of free speech, which was originally intended to allow mature adults to take responsibility and ownership of their actions and beliefs, not run away from them. The idea of running away from your actions and beliefs, in the name of freedom, inverts the entire philosophical foundation.
"You must give the government more control of your life or you hate children." is a bad argument.
The cypherpunk ideology has convinced you that any form of identity verification equals totalitarian control, which is precisely the absolutist thinking that prevents reasonable child safety measures, and got us here. There's a massive middle ground between 'anonymous free-for-all' and 'government surveillance state' that you're pretending doesn't exist.
You might say that's a slippery slope. However, government at all is a slippery slope, a senator can literally propose anything at any time, and a Supreme Court ruling can practically do whatever it wants. And yet, every attempt at living without a government, has always been worse. The internet right now is like living in an anarchic society with moderators and tech companies as warlords. The warlords don't see a problem with this, but the majority of people underneath know full well there's a government already.
The cypherpunk ideology doesn't keep government out of tech. It just creates worse governments with less accountability and more power.
I would support reasonable measures to block children from accessing pornographic content, but making people upload government IDs or biometric data does not belong to the realm of what is reasonable.