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.
A close friend of mine was visited by police over a political joke they made on social media. People don’t seem to give a fuck, but those same people might stop posting after some offline intimidation.