you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[+] -10 points 8 months ago* (12 children)

Honestly I'm not opposed to age restriction, so long as its only ever accomplished using zero knowledge proofs of some kind. Or just without revealing identity. But they've made it pretty clear with the systems they have implemented already nearly everyone is either incompetent or the goal is survelence all along.

The bill is the "Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill" here and this is the amendment they're talking about: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3909/stages/20215/amendments/10027478

There's also a petition to stop that bit "Do not ban children from using virtual private networks". I'm pesamistic about its chance of it succeeding but after the shinanigins around digital ID, who knows?

Slightly unrelated but the other day I discovered tor browser was being blocked on NHS wifi I could only connect with a bridge. The internet in this country makes me depressed now.

  • source
  • hideshow 12 child comments
  • [–] 30 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    Parents can already control which websites their kids visit by using parental control software, basically every porn website which complies with these identity verification laws uses it. https://rtalabel.net/page.php?content=parents Restricting these safe websites makes users switch to other, freely accessible, and often less moderated sites.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

    Exactly, even increasing education on parental controls or legal requirements for that would be better if they actually cared about the children. I think the goal is actually just surveilence.

    Slightly more conspiratorially, I think the goal might be to do just that: push users to more unsafe options, then use that to justify more crackdowns.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] -4 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah but imagine trying to explain to your 15yo kid that you're not going to let them interact with their friends on facebook or whatever because reasons.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 18 points 8 months ago

    The people creating a moral panic about protecting the children only took action against a paedophile when information came to light that he may have leaked secret government information to his paedophile buddy.

    Not the child sex crimes.

    When they do something about the child sex traffickers in power, then they we talk about protecting the children on the internet.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Honestly I'm not opposed to age restriction, so long as its only ever accomplished using zero knowledge proofs of some kind. Or just without revealing identity.

    Restriction of a class is the restriction of all. Laws like this shouldn't be marked by shallow legal lines, this is yet again a play on discrimination.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    No idea why you are getting down voted. Zero knowledge verification for age would be great. You could also do zero knowledge verification for being a real person to distinguish people from bots.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Because the underlying concept is so terrible and guaranteed to have bad results as it is inherently 'think of the children' bullshit. The entire premise is flawed.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [+] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago*

    No, I am saying the underlying concept that people should be expected or required to prove their age or who they are on the internet for access is bullshit. How that is proven doesn't matter, because it will always escalate and any credentials can just be used by someone else anyway.

    For example, how would any kind of proof work on a computer without a camera or other means of identifying who is using it at a point in time? I have zero plans to ever add a camera to my desktop PC. If I have to go through hoops like I did to get a stupid IRS account that ended up with a fucking video call on my phone to prove it was me creating the account anywhere else I won't bother. If they want me to use that ID to do things, then anything I can do is easily tracked.

    Self identification for all internet activity is the wet dream of tech bros, and fascists, and other authoritarians. I would much rather kids stumble across porn because they clicked 'yes I am an adult' than give more power to the pedos running the system.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (-1 replies)