Bill C-34 Answers Child Safety with Identity Infrastructure

https://ethanplant.ca/writing/bill-c-34/

by ethanplant • 23 days ago

12 4 23 days ago

kelseyfrog2• 23 days ago

Age verification and loss of privacy, or parents assume legal liabily for child endangerment. We must choose one.

We cannot expect a change in behavior of parents nor organizations without a change in incentives. The idea that parents will magically start parenting their children is absurd.

ethanplant• 23 days ago

Broadly I agree that you can’t expect organizations to change their behaviour without changing the incentives. That’s essentially my argument in favour of the platform accountability portions of the bill.

Where I disagree is the framing that it’s a binary between “age verification for all” or “legal liability for parents”. There is a third option: change the incentives for the organizations designing and operating the systems children are using.

Regulate recommender systems, addictive defaults, reporting and appeal mechanisms, non-consensual intimate imagery response, synthetic sexual abuse material, dark patterns, safety plans, transparency, audits, and penalties for platforms that fail to respond properly. Those are all aimed at the organizations creating or amplifying the harm. This is, admittedly, the most difficult approach, but it’s also the approach that actually addresses the root cause.

My concern is that an under-16 account ban turns the enforcement problem into an age-assurance problem for all users. The platform has to determine who is under 16 somehow, which means assessing everyone’s age. That creates privacy and access-control infrastructure while the most vulnerable teenagers are also the ones most likely to route around it.

So yes, change incentives. I just think the incentives should be aimed directly at platform conduct and design, not at making everyone prove they are old enough to participate online.

kelseyfrog2• 23 days ago

Without removing the incentive to profit from users interacting with the platform, I'm deeply skeptical that the profit incentive can in any way be meaningfully be defused by regulation. The threat is existential to social media.

retrochameleon• 23 days ago

I agree with your point.

I also agree that parents taking zero accountability for their kids is BS. I think we are due for some improved tooling to provide for parents to monitor and control internet access. I'm tired of parents acting like there is nothing they can do except support broad invasion of privacy and anonimity with no regard for the cultural and political repercussions.

Bill C-34 Answers Child Safety with Identity Infrastructure

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