I’m asking for public policy ideas here. A lot of countries are enacting age verification now. But of course this is a privacy nightmare and is ripe for abuse. At the same time though, I also understand why people are concerned with how kids are using social media. These products are designed to be addictive and are known to cause body image issues and so forth. So what’s the middle ground? How can we protect kids from the harms of social media in a way that respects everyone’s privacy?
Fair point. I’m sure if there was a social media ban the fediverse would be a low priority. That said I still don’t see how it would be financially unviable because like I mentioned earlier most instances already have an application process
Because age-ID tools cost money to maintain. And most larger instances do not screen every single application individually. If it could be done financially without age-ID, it would certainly make running the instance a complete chore and cause many to shut down on that basis alone.
And asking people to give them a picture of them in a pub isn’t going to be accepted as a valid age technique legally.