i wrote another essay in the youtube comment section. copy-pasting it just cuz i can lul
social media bans are just a grab for your personal data. to prove you are above 16 you'll have to fork over your government id to a third party website that may or may not actually delete the data after they 'verify' you. (conveniently, this fact is left out of any polls that ask, "do you support banning kids from social media?" - a lot of people do. but a lot of those people do not in fact support uploading their government ids to 'verify' their age, or digital ids, etc so it's a useless statistic really, but it's one a government can point to and say 'look! the people agree!') you won't know until they get hacked & you see weird behavior going on with regards to strange phone calls about bank accounts you didn't set up, etc. who is any safer for that?
it's also ineffective, takes choice away from parents' regarding what their kids can or cannot handle while at the same time kids will just migrate to less moderated websites, and to any liberal who thinks it's a good idea: what the libs put in place, another party can use against you. like, duh? you don't want 'your' side to have powers you don't want to see used against you if your worst nightmare of a candidate gets in! use your heads.
also it's a stepping stone to digital id and eroding your choice of staying anonymous online. no thanks! people are crazy! i don't need some unhinged lunatic hunting me for sport because i said something they don't like on the internet! i've seen people do this over clashing opinions on CARTOONS…
like, do people say some hateful things online? sure. but like, even youtube has a BLOCK FEATURE. BLOCK THOSE PEOPLE. wow so ez. sure sure, it might feel nice and tingly if someone spouting some hateful things gets their comeuppance but um. look to our southern neighbor. it only takes one election cycle for the government to start demonizing trans people, for example. do you really want to make it easier for them to find those people? lol??
and then there's the fact that if this "id verification" nonsense spreads far enough it will just become the default. there are still many, many countries where just being gay is illegal. there are countries where being certain religions is scrutinized, or being indigenous, etc, etc. if online anonymity is eroded completely they won't be able to seek online community anymore. among everything else, id verification is homophobic.
i've also seen an uptick in "your account has been compromised! please give your id so we can verify that you're you" scams. i have watched people almost fall for them in real time with the only reason they didn't being that i spammed that they were a SCAM until the scam account blocked me. and it isn't just old people falling for this, the site this took place on is mostly people in their ~20-30s.
i would also consider it a national security issue. all that personal civilian data… or do we not matter? maybe we should encourage politicians' kids to use their parent's ids to verify themselves. maybe then it will matter?
and we all know it isn't about the kids anyway, it's about the $$data$$. it's no coincidence i'm sure that they tabled c-34 shortly after carney declared "ai for all."
if it was just about verifying your age, those 'verification' companies would advise you - for your own safety - to censor out everything but your face and your date of birth. they don't need ANYTHING ELSE… unless it isn't just to verify your age 🤔
if this idiocy passes here (and i sincerely hope it doesn't; as we can see in the uk it is actually rather unpopular and quite the career killer! NO ONE LIKES STARMER, and the age verification nonsense is part of why he is utterly loathed - i recommend anyone reading this to point this & everything else about why this is such a bad idea out to their MPs) i plan to send in one of those censored examples.
if it isn't accepted i will become very annoying for all involved. this is a promise. and i highly recommend others do the same :) either do not comply, or - if you must - send in an id with all unnecessary data points cut out of the image and raise a ruckus about it if it's "not enough." because again, they don't need your full legal NAME, your weight, your height, etc, to prove your AGE.
also i'm pretty sure our charter guarantees us freedom of expression. do under-16s not count as human anymore? are they not citizens? social media is also used as a place to share art, writing, and other projects. sooo…??
and if it's anything like australia's ban, then those kids (and adults who do not, or cannot, verify) run the risk of having all of their creative work deleted. not cool.
it doesn't even have to be creative work. laugh about those fancy photographs people take of their lattes all you want, yeah they're cringe, but they're also memories. social media has more or less taken the place of photo albums and scrap books and diaries.
governments try to say they'll make it safe. they'll fine sites if they don't really delete your data!!! but that doesn't really work. i'm sure they make more money keeping your data and selling it for ai training than they lose in any government fine. if they didn't, then they actually would delete that data because the pros wouldn't outweigh the cons (but most times, they don't… delete your data, that is).
in either case if your data gets leaked and sold you now have multiple copies of it probably being used by criminals to do who knows what and YOU have to deal with that while also juggling your busy life. yay!!!!
behold the sheer stupidity of politicians trying to regulate technologies that they don't understand! it's like none of them have ever been taught basic online safety (do not give out your personal data… like, say… YOUR GOVERNMENT ID)! but seeing as our "ai minister" is apparently technologically inept i guess that tracks. like, god, if people that useless can get a high ranking government position, maybe i should try for one. i at least went to trade school for some of this. but that probably makes me over qualified…
…and if i had to deal with people so brain-numbingly stupid every day i'd off myself, probably.
Taking Stock of Bill C-34: Five Things to Know About the Government's Plan for a Kids' Social Media Ban, Mandated Age Verification, and AI Chatbot Rules
