See? What did I tell you? Age verification mandates are censorship mandates. The goal is not to protect kids, but to control what you say and do online.
But of course, "think of the children" -- tools already exist to bring predators to justice. This is just an excuse not to use them; this is an excuse to censor legitimate content down the road.
and don't even get started on "what about keeping children away from porn". We do have an answer to that. It's called being a fucking responsible parent. It's called reigning in predatory algorithms. It's called holding tech platforms responsible for building bespoke algorithms.
But no. Censorship is what they offer. A solution that has no problem to fix, and is a problem by and of itself.
And don't get me started on the encryption schtick. Let me say it plain: you want to nuke a metropolis because one citizen is unruly. That's what you're doing by demanding backdoors. You think breaching a dam will drown out the poison in the water. You'll flood it everywhere.
A backdoor in encryption is like having a 'maintenance access door' in the other side of a multi-lock bank vault that's built strong enough to survive a bunker-buster. Criminals *love* backdoors. Doesn't matter in what faith.
"Don't care about privacy because I have nothing to hide." Okay, post your social number, your bank account info, your work address all in plaintext? Don't look at me! You said you have nothing to hide? By not reveaing all of that information, aren't you engaged in.. *gasp* PRIVACY?!
Oh, you're such a hypocrite!
But yes, "think of the children".
It's never about the children. It's about control. Don't be fooled.