The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child clearly expresses that minors have rights to freedom of expression and access to information online, as well as the right to privacy.
These rights would be steamrolled by age verification requirements.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child clearly expresses that minors have rights to freedom of expression and access to information online, as well as the right to privacy.
These rights would be steamrolled by age verification requirements.
It can be done.
Do you really have no other complaints?
How can it be done?
You connect to an age-gated site.
Your browser receives an age verification request that does not contain information about the site.
It would contain the time, a random number, and the query: Is user over 18/16/14/whatever?
You identify yourself to that service in some way. The service could also be a program on your own device that uses a chip on your ID-card. If the service confirms the age, it digitally signs the request.
The site checks if the signature is valid and done. There’s never any connection between the age verification service and the site. If the request is more than a few seconds old, then it will be rejected to prevent sharing.
Of course, this assumes that sites will cooperate and implement such schemes at their own expense. Obviously(?) that will only be done by the larger sites, so it will be quite pointless. I don’t know why that is not a consideration. Understanding that doesn’t actually require any deep technical knowledge. But that’s typical for EU tech regulation.
How do you prevent people from selling access to children by calling the age verification service for them?
Btw,
Which other complaints could I have?
The high volume of requests would be detected pretty quickly. The verification service would not know what sites you visit, but it would know that you are making requests.
To succeed, that would need a fairly large number of stolen or fake identities. There’s really no point when you can just sell adult products, including pirated media, directly.
Which other complaints could I have?
I don’t fully get the part about selling adult products directly.
The verification service doesn’t need stolen accounts.
There is a maximum number of unsuspiciously requestable tokens and people can sell their unrequested ones. There will be a black market and no ability to investigate unless privacy is lifted.
It’s still inhibiting children, but so does telling them not to do it.
Since foreign services do not need to comply, porn will still be available. So a firewall is needed. But then, why not give children an age appropriate vpn for their devices and accounts and leave the internet to itself?