Post by @ozoned@btfree.social

So, I've been seeing news about all of the age verification laws, and I see a LOT of scared people.

Here's the way I see it, and I'd like to honestly get people's opinion, I think they're dumb, HOWEVER, I think the laws give ud a HUGE opportunity. YOU can run your own platform and you can verify your own age. Same with your family, same with your community. This gives us power.

Are people just going to hand over their IDs to Facebook? Probably, but it won't be me. And there will be massive fraud and issues and this will force legal degradation of centralized platforms.

Thoughts?

10 Replies

4 Boosts

Michael Mathy

@michaelmathy@mastodon.online 6 mo. ago

@ozoned
The age verification should be implemented in your phone. And if someone want to know your age, just call an api on your phone that will say "yes lower than 18” or something like that
In a tech podcast I am listening, they were discussing that apple might implement something like that linked to the parental control.
In that case you do not have to have your id to anybody but just to your phone.

Boiling Steam

@boilingsteam@mastodon.cloud 6 mo. ago

@ozoned

> YOU can run your own platform and you can verify your own age

until you can't.

ozoned

@ozoned 6 mo. ago

@boilingsteam@mastodon.cloud yes, but that's with everything. Can you expand?

Boiling Steam

@boilingsteam@mastodon.cloud 6 mo. ago

@ozoned its very easy to pass changes once the first step is taken. You start with v1, people dont complain because there are still some workarounds and give it a few years and you won't notice they tight things up progressively and by that time it will be too late.

ozoned

@ozoned 6 mo. ago

@boilingsteam@mastodon.cloud potentially. I'm an idealist and I'm very biased in favor of the Fediverse, but I have a difficult time believing they'd want to enforce this against my running my own for my own family, let alone them actually being able to enforce this. It absolutely could impact big open platforms like mastodon.social or even my own tubefree.org. but this is a reaction to big tech getting us into this position and finding ways to reduce their power.

~2 more replies

Boiling Steam

@boilingsteam@mastodon.cloud 6 mo. ago

@ozoned

> New York’s proposed Senate Bill S8102A requires adults to prove they’re adults to use a computer, exercise bike, smart watch, or car if the device is internet enabled with app ecosystems. The bill explicitly forbids self-reporting and leaves the allowed methods to regulations written by the Attorney General. Practical methods for a bill of such extreme breadth would require, in many instances, providing private information to a third-party just to use a computer at all.

Boiling Steam

@boilingsteam@mastodon.cloud 6 mo. ago

@ozoned
https://blog.system76.com/post/system76-on-age-verification

System76 Blog

System76 on Age Verification Laws

Liberty has costs, but it's worth it.

ozoned

@ozoned 6 mo. ago

@boilingsteam@mastodon.cloud it'll be interesting to see how that's supposed to work. I'm not in NY so I don't fall under those laws. But I can just grab a new OS from somewhere else as I run Linux and GrapheneOS. Any third party that houses that info will be a MASSIVE target for hackers. I think these things are years away from being implemented and practical. Just because a law exists, doesn't mean it's enforceable. It'll definitely be interesting to watch. And states will be sued and it'll take years to move through courts as this is entirely new ground. So we'll have to see how they're classifying the internet and how they justify it.

I'll say this though, I'm against this kind of thing personally, but I think all of these people are attempting g to do anything they can to dig us out of the current pit we're in. The road to hell is paved with good intentions though.

PalePimp

@PalePimp@poa.st 6 mo. ago

@boilingsteam @ozoned The classic slippery slope switcheroo, aka the Patriot act, because you want to protect the children and our liberties isn't goy?

1+ more replies

Boiling Steam

@boilingsteam@mastodon.cloud 6 mo. ago

@ozoned

> YOU can run your own platform and you can verify your own age

until you can't.