Submission + - Age Verification Laws Drag Us Back to the Dark Ages of the Internet (404media.co)
samleecole writes: In Texas, Montana, North Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Utah, age verification laws require sites with more than one third adult content to force users to upload their driver’s license, passport, or other government-issued ID. Indiana and Idaho’s age verification laws will take effect on July 1, and bills are progressing in several more states.
The legislators passing these bills are doing so under the guise of protecting children, but what’s actually happening is a widespread rewiring of the scaffolding of the internet. They ignore long-established legal precedent that has said for years that age verification is unconstitutional, eventually and inevitably reducing everything we see online without impossible privacy hurdles and compromises to that which is not “harmful to minors.”
The people who live in these states, including the minors the law is allegedly trying to protect, are worse off because of it. So is the rest of the internet.
The legislators passing these bills are doing so under the guise of protecting children, but what’s actually happening is a widespread rewiring of the scaffolding of the internet. They ignore long-established legal precedent that has said for years that age verification is unconstitutional, eventually and inevitably reducing everything we see online without impossible privacy hurdles and compromises to that which is not “harmful to minors.”
The people who live in these states, including the minors the law is allegedly trying to protect, are worse off because of it. So is the rest of the internet.
Age Verification Laws Drag Us Back to the Dark Ages of the Internet More Login
Age Verification Laws Drag Us Back to the Dark Ages of the Internet
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