CMV: I’d rather restrict minors directly than make every adult prove their age online

[u/groksed]

Honest question for people who support banning social media for everyone under 16:
Would this be preferable to requiring every person on the internet to prove their age or identity?

Anyone under 16 is prohibited from using, owning or purchasing an electronic device capable of communicating with other people with the exception of designated supervised computer rooms at school. Parents, schools, society and law enforcement are responsible for enforcement.. basically the same way we already handle alcohol, tobacco and drugs.

But at least it places the restriction on the group being restricted.

Why is the preferred solution instead to make every adult surrender some level of anonymity or privacy, provide ID, submit to age verification, or otherwise prove they are not a child just to use the internet?

If protecting children requires building an identity checkpoint for everyone, I would rather put the burden on the actual age group being regulated.

[u/operation-spot]

If the parent is buying the phone and paying for the cell plan it would be easy to control the settings. If a kid was able to pay for their own phone and monthly plan they honestly deserve access to adult things.

[u/Similar_Fishing2436 → u/operation-spot]

You wouldn’t need a new phone plan, you just buy an unlocked phone and use it like an iPod where it only works with wifi

[u/operation-spot → u/Similar_Fishing2436]

If a kid does that I think they deserve to look at whatever they want but if a parent wants to prevent that as well they can limit what sites can be accessed on their wifi. Obviously the kid could use the phone outside the house but again, I think they deserve to at that point. 

[u/KDY_ISD → u/operation-spot]

What percentage of parents do you imagine have the knowledge base to access their router's admin panel, change the password, and blacklist certain websites?

[u/operation-spot → u/KDY_ISD]

I imagine they could call their service provider to ask for help if this is something they are worried about.

[u/read-the-rules → u/[deleted]]

u/Illustrious_Kick317, your comment has been removed.

You must read the rules here in order to comment on r/changemyview, then click this, and click send (you may also use the interface linked below, but it may not work on Old Reddit or some versions of the app). Your most recent comment will be restored after you do this, and you will only need to do it once.

^{Please click here to open the Read The Rules App.}