What we call "age verification" is actually mass surveillance
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Proposed age verification laws require mass online surveillance, not privacy.
Cory Doctorow argues that 'age verification' mandates are actually mass surveillance that would make ad-tech tracking seem tame. These laws, pushed by an unlikely coalition of anti-Big Tech campaigners and Heritage Foundation-backed culture warriors, would require everyone to submit to fine-grained tracking of all online activities. This serves the surveillance advertising industry by making privacy illegal. Doctorow notes that tech insiders know this will teach kids to use VPNs, and the next step will be banning VPNs. He contends online harms to kids begin with surveillance, and you can't protect kids from surveillance by spying on them.
What commenters are saying
The top comment argues that age verification doesn't require dystopian tracking, citing reasonable proposals that could achieve 90%+ success without intrusiveness. Another commenter notes that alcohol sales don't require tracking every purchase, though others point out stores increasingly scan IDs. A strong current holds that the ID requirement is the whole point, not about children, and that privacy-preserving techniques are irrelevant because they don't accomplish the goal of tying all online activity to identity. One commenter proposes client-side parental controls with website tags as an alternative to identity verification.