Think of the children: How to force real ID for all internet traffic (2023)
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Age verification laws are a pretext to force Real ID tracking on all internet traffic.
Politicians, businesses, and states may collude to require centralized ID databases for adult websites, then expand to social media, banks, and chat systems. The author proposes a simpler alternative: revive the voluntary RTA header standard, which lets sites tag adult content and parents enforce controls via browsers. Legislation should mandate RTA headers and client-side parental controls instead of tracking databases that risk data leaks and self-censorship.
What commenters are saying
The dominant sentiment is that parental responsibility, not government databases, should control children's internet access. Commenters propose extreme legal liability for data leaks ($1M per identity) to deter collection, or even making internet access illegal for minors. Skeptics note that political pressure and billionaires' interests drive the push for ID tracking. Several commenters highlight RTA headers as a simple technical alternative already in use by sites like Pornhub.