Anyone who’s looked critically at the studies of social media on teens, especially teenage girls, will observe how catastrophic its effects are on the mental health of the minors. It spikes anxiety, reduces confidence, and induces dopamine addiction, which hurts attention span and cognition. It’s a disaster, and I understand the intent of the bill on its face.
That said, I agree in principle that parents, for their children’s best interests, have a prerogative to control what their children are exposed to. Social media is absolutely within that domain. I’m inclined to believe anyone who disagrees with that principle is a potential predator who seeks to undermine that authority.
I do not think age verification with a government-issued ID is an effective way to do this. At least not as it is. There is undue risk exposing sensitive personal information. If the folks working in govt were more clever, they’d see that the verification would instead depend on some hash or digital signature and where the government would issue some certificate authority to mediate the legitimacy of the signatures. Zero-knowledge proofs are the answer here.
In all honesty though, I think the more appropriate solution is to simply have parents themselves (as opposed to governments) to moderate their children rather than control how content providers conduct their business. If their children cannot be trusted with a cellphone to keep away from tik-tok, then simply lock down their device or give their children a dumb phone. The margin of abuse and risk is far greater with a centralized power like the government. Governments turn corrupt all the time.
That said, I agree in principle that parents, for their children’s best interests, have a prerogative to control what their children are exposed to. Social media is absolutely within that domain. I’m inclined to believe anyone who disagrees with that principle is a potential predator who seeks to undermine that authority.
I do not think age verification with a government-issued ID is an effective way to do this. At least not as it is. There is undue risk exposing sensitive personal information. If the folks working in govt were more clever, they’d see that the verification would instead depend on some hash or digital signature and where the government would issue some certificate authority to mediate the legitimacy of the signatures. Zero-knowledge proofs are the answer here.
In all honesty though, I think the more appropriate solution is to simply have parents themselves (as opposed to governments) to moderate their children rather than control how content providers conduct their business. If their children cannot be trusted with a cellphone to keep away from tik-tok, then simply lock down their device or give their children a dumb phone. The margin of abuse and risk is far greater with a centralized power like the government. Governments turn corrupt all the time.