Process
Status Items Highlights Done See section below Claims None Questions None Output None
Highlights
id935283582
The Online Safety Act is fundamentally changing how people in the UK access the internet and adds a layer of verification that is incompatible with the concept of a free and open internet as we know it. It doesn’t guarantee children can’t view mature content. VPN usage in the UK is already skyrocketing and kids are easily bypassing the kind of age verification tech Reddit is using, but that friction makes some information inherently less accessible.
id935283600
As free speech advocates have argued, and as the new age verification on certain Reddit communities now show, the result of this policy in practice is also to limit access to important information across the board, regardless of the user’s age.
id935283614
age verification system is likely to make some users turn away because they are worried about their privacy and don’t want to upload a selfie or picture of their ID, or because they just don’t want to jump through hoops.
id935283636
age verification laws are going to further skew the internet’s ability to reflect reality with a bias that diminishes how cruel, bloody, and inhumane that reality can be. I don’t think it’s good or necessary for children to have easy access to ISIS beheading videos, but I also don’t think it’s good that a piece of legislation that aims to protect children is making it much more difficult for internet users, even if they are younger than 18, to view the emaciated bodies of children in Gaza who are dying of starvation, and to discuss that fact with other people on Reddit.
✏️ Good debate question. How do you do both things? How do you protect kids from seeing things they might not be ready for, while still allowing people easy/neutral access to information that is otherwise being hidden. #addto/questions 🔗 View Highlight
id935283685
decision by lawmakers to make it harder to see the brutal reality behind the news isn’t neutral. The Pentagon for years banned the media from covering flag-draped coffins of war victims coming back from Iraq, which made it easier to forget how many Americans died there, not to speak of Iraqi civilians.