Jurisdictions are already lining up to slide down the slope as fast as they can. New York intends to mandate real verification and anti-circumvention measures at the OS level. There is no room for compromise: any jurisdiction attempting to compel what must be included in an OS is batshit insane and normalizing this is going to very quickly lead to JesusTracker.exe being mandated by Texas and CrocCam.exe by Florida.

Contrary to your belief that if we just give them an inch they won't take the full mile, I think it is very important to get people rallied against OS modification altogether. If you take a murky position like "a little bit of age verification, as a treat", and sell people on voting for that / not protesting it, all you're doing is priming the average person for accepting age verification no matter how invasive. Average Joe isn't going to understand the nuances of when age verification may or may not be tolerable, nor is Average Joe going to understand the nuances of when compelled software inclusion may or may not be tolerable. If we want to get millions aligned in the same interest, the message needs to be extremely clear and straightforward, communicating exactly how bad of an idea it is to let each and every jurisdiction compel their own form of surveillance into your OS.

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terribleperson 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Average Joe thinks age verification is already palatable. Average Joe is happy to give away a photo of his ID. The alternative to OS age attestation isn't no age verification. It's almost every site, and every piece of internet-connected software, demanding your ID.

Putting your age into your user account is not the same thing.

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applfanboysbgon 4 hours ago | parent [-]

> Average Joe is happy to give away a photo of his ID.

I don't think this is actually true. Discord walked back its implementation of global age verification for now because it was protested so heavily. Governments can get away with mandating ID for porn sites and Average Joe will not make a ruckus about it because it's a shameful/embarrassing topic they would rather sweep under the rug, but I don't think Average Joe is on board with ID verification to use their computer just yet.

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terribleperson 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Discord's still doing it, they just delayed it and will supposedly be offering other verification options. They still amount to identity verification, and the noose will be tightened over time.

	▲	applfanboysbgon 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Discord is going to try again later after waiting for the backlash to die down and seeing if they can massage the PR better, yes. The point is that Average Joe did not want it, so they have to take such measures. You asserted that Average Joe is happy to hand over his ID, but this seems clearly untrue. Even if Discord does do it later, I doubt it will go down happily.
	▲	3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
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