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?
In not in favor of providing ID for anything. If a service requires it, I won’t use that service. Also, I can’t think of a verification system like this that hasn’t been bypassed or exploited, so it’s largely an exercise in futility.
However, a compelling argument is to use your phone’s biometrics to perform a challenge and verification. Basically, your device acts as your ID so sites never have it. I think this way better than all websites to keep a copy of the identity.
Using biometrics is an interesting idea. It could be similar to Apples face-scan to unlock feature, where the model of your face never leaves your local device but can still be used as two factor authentication to access your banking, for example.