Age verification proposals are often presented as a simple tradeoff: sacrifice a little privacy to better safeguard children online. But that framing overlooks a more fundamental question. What happens to people who cannot verify their age at all? This is particularly a problem when users are required to prove their age with identity documents.



IMO, because this all centers on access to social media platforms, it’s also a restriction on freedom of speech. Kids can’t talk to other people just because of the form of communication? Fucking bullshit and does absolutely fuck all to fix the true underlying problems. The lack of ID also just puts the restriction on many unhoused adults and is very likely to be an intentional side effect.