I don’t have children, which means I wasn’t all that concerned with the age verification issue on the internet. Like so many other things that politicians want to legislate, I thought this was a parental issue. Parents should decide what their kids can access and what they should not. However, with ubiquitous tablets and phones, it seems virtually impossible for a parent to manage this problem.
When the idea of having websites do age-verification, I thought, “Great idea.” After all, I’ve entered my birthdate or age on many sites, or simply clicked “I’m over 21” on other sites. But that made me start to think. How would age verification work?
The Favored Answer
While there might be a few other options I haven’t heard of, the predominant one is to have to upload some form of ID. This presents a variety of issues for everyone.
First, do they really believe kids can’t get fake ID? I remember many friends acquiring a fake driver’s license to hang out in bars. Fake ID is probably even easier to create with scanners and other technology. A motivated child is going to have no difficulties finding a way around this simple challenge. Even if they have to upload a matching picture and then show their face on a webcam, there are ways around this. Kids are endlessly inventive—if you don’t believe me, just remember your own childhood. We had loads of hacks to get around the ‘rents.
Second, how much data do you wish to share with any given website? If you upload your driver’s license, that gives them more information than they currently have. Other forms of ID are also problematic for us privacy hawks. While many would have no issue with it, we are already let them mine too much of our personal information. If you have to do age verification, EVERYONE will have to do it. This also means additional overhead simply to access a website.
This approach simply won’t work. Too many of us have had it with the data-scraping. We won’t offer more information for free.
What Should Happen
Instead, let’s turn to the various Silicon gulches in the country to give the parents tools to lock up their children’s access. We already have ways to limit time on various apps. Why not allow parents an override to block access to specific websites. Or, block all website, unless a parent unblocks them. The technology is likely not all that difficult and most parents would probably be happy to pay for some kind of control.
On mainframe computers, we have two major forms of security – block all but what you entitled to access or block only selected areas. This is what was developed when most employees had access to company data. You didn’t want everyone to be able to look at detailed customer data, or payroll records. We have the understanding of various ways to block access; they simply need to be developed for the various devices.
Another option might be to upgrade routers to be able to switch off internet access for specific devices at specific times. That would be very cool. Make sure your password on the device controlling the router is not obvious.
The idea of parental controls isn’t new. We’ve had some forms for years. But given the toxic content of many websites and apps, we now need to extend this control to the internet. We need to keep our kids safe, but we need to do it right. The government will mess it up, interfering with legitimate access of adults.
Until Then
Children and teens rarely purchase their own devices. Parents should be insisting that browser history be maintained, so they can look at it. They should be able to take devices away when homework or chores need to be done, at night (when they should be sleeping) or as a punishment. Yes, kids need internet access simply to do homework, but parents should be able to be in charge.
This would also allow parents access to the kinds of information on their kids’ education that they had during Covid. I’m not sure that all the teachers have backed away from telling kids they are oppressors or that they should consider a sex change.
Too often, we forget to let parents do their job. Instead, we think the government should do it. Keep in mind how well the government does anything they stick their noses into. Is that really a good idea? Ideally, we outsource most functions to people who know what they are doing and provide good service. The government is not on your side. Take ownership of this important issue.
