It's not parents demanding 'age verification' laws.

That's not supported by the polling.

>From everything you have seen and heard, do you support or oppose the recent rules requiring age verification to access websites that may contain pornographic material?*

>80% support

https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/52693-how-have-britons-rea...

>The Essential poll found majority support for a range reforms to improve online safety including: [...] enforcing age verifications for pornography and gambling sites (79%); enforcing age verification for social media (76%)

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/may/...

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john_strinlai 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

it really difficult to take this polling at face value. average people typically hear only one side of the argument: "age verification will stop kids from accessing harmful sites".

they don't hear about all of the potential downsides, knock-on effects, chilling effects, etc. unless they are part of niche groups like HN. and even if they do, in passing, they often lack the technical knowledge to really understand the implications.

i.e., they are consenting, but it isn't informed consent.

i imagine there would be an interesting picture if these numbers were presented in buckets by occupation, or by results in tech competency test, etc.

(similarly, as an example, my opinion in a poll about some complex medical procedure would not be very informed. i would be relying solely on what i hear on the news or read in a quick article, with no fundamentals to really assess and form an opinion of my own)

	▲	amarant 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		This is a problem with current implementations of democracy. It's free elections, but it's not informed elections. The average voter has very little clue about what they are voting for. Arguably it's impossible to know in a representative democracy. Not that I know how to do it better, but it's definitely an issue, possibly one that could be solved somehow.

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diordiderot an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There was no option to select no!

Only which age you wanted the ban to start

	▲	gruez 43 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48674572

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xyzzy_plugh 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Support is not the same thing as demand.

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gruez 3 hours ago | parent [-]

That just seems like a cheap way to wriggle out of any inconvenient poll numbers. Most people support access to abortion? Well how many people actually demand it? Most people support medicare for all? Well how many people actually demand it?

	▲	xyzzy_plugh 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		[dead]

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antipurist 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Are you quoting the same polls that simply didn't offer respondents any way to say "I'm against all of it"?

Dishonest polls do not demonstrate popular support.

https://consumerrights.wiki/w/User:Louis/Manufacturing_suppo...

	▲	gruez 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		>Are you quoting the same polls that simply didn't offer respondents any way to say "I'm against all of it"? https://essentialreport.com.au/reports/07-may-2024

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PxldLtd 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This feels a bit out of touch. These policies have a lot of public support here in the UK. All of our parent friends are lauding it despite my complaints.

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kodisha 3 hours ago | parent [-]

What story are they telling them self to justify this?

	▲	mhitza 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		By ignoring key implementation details. That's what has been happening in Romania with this topic for the last year. Constant polling and reporting of opinion, and always phrased in terms of effect instead of how they aim to do so. Once properly informed "do you want to go through an ID check on all websites and apps that you use?" people wise up quickly to the issue. But state sponsored media is pretty adamant about moving this topic forward.

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ryan_n an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

You sure about that? The average person couldn't care less about privacy and would gladly hand over a significant amount of data to whatever company asks. The sentiment on hacker news isn't the norm.