It doesn’t have to (and shouldn’t) be the social media company gathering that information but a third party verification system that doesn’t save anything, just validates the age using a driver’s license/form of ID. We can do this (we do it for military and veterans so companies can give them discounts) in the US already.
I can understand not wanting to give social media too much data on you, but honestly they probably already have it already. Especially on platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
If we’re supposed to be protecting children (with all these stupid laws anyway), then let’s actually do that instead of just pretending all these stupid restrictions we currently have actually work.
No, I don’t think the cutoff should be 18 either but a parent or guardian being forced to validate a 14 year old’s account for them might actually force them to engage with what their kid is doing online which I would consider a win.
It doesn’t have to (and shouldn’t) be the social media company gathering that information but a third party verification system that doesn’t save anything, just validates the age using a driver’s license/form of ID. We can do this (we do it for military and veterans so companies can give them discounts) in the US already.
Unless you have extremely strong laws around personal information, the financial incentive for any 3rd party to collect and sell that information will be too strong.
And if your 3rd party verifier is the government, then there will be equally strong pressure from law enforcement to collect that information.
The age is 13 for coppa and they are required to get their parents permission already. Also are people in other countries supposed to have a US ID now? If it isn’t saved, couldn’t you just copy your parent’s ID while they aren’t looking? This doesn’t solve anything.
There is not really any check or balance preventing them from lying about their age to make an account. So no. They aren’t being required to get their parents permission already. That’s the point. COPPA is a toothless set of laws that doesn’t enact consequences for parents or companies unless a person or entity with money intervenes.
