I’m asking for public policy ideas here. A lot of countries are enacting age verification now. But of course this is a privacy nightmare and is ripe for abuse. At the same time though, I also understand why people are concerned with how kids are using social media. These products are designed to be addictive and are known to cause body image issues and so forth. So what’s the middle ground? How can we protect kids from the harms of social media in a way that respects everyone’s privacy?
Be a parent. If you’re going to fuck and have children, you need to be prepared for the responsibilities ahead. Stop trying to automate it by dumping those responsibilities onto others.
Of course there is a role for parents to play here, but I worry that making this the sole responsibility of parents allows big tech to evade responsibility. Vendors are not allowed to sell things to children that we can reasonably foresee will cause them harm, like alcohol or cigarettes. Why should social media be any different?