cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/49729865
However you look at it age verification is a major change to the internet and our freedoms.
We’ve seen all kinds of legislation pushed through in the past, often even against major resistance.
What makes me suspicious this time is the speed at which some of the slowest bureaucracies in the world are adopting it and how it’s happening in 20+ countries in parallel.
It’s like they’re all in a group chat, fast-tracking this before resistance can even form.
Though I share your concern regarding possible censorship and information restrictions etc, according to the article:
"After approval by the Senate earlier Tuesday, members of the National Assembly passed the bill by 279 votes to 81. "
This is a very high approval rate in favour of the bill in France , where they can’t almost agree on anything. Also, according to this eurobarometer:
" The risk of cyberbullying or harassment that children face on social media (mentioned by 71% of respondents) and the risk of online grooming or sexual exploitation that children face on social media (70%) are the biggest concerns of Europeans".
So this appears to be genuinely on the agenda of most Europeans.
The detrimental effects of social media are proven in many peer reviewed publications. No one is debating that. But why the hell does everyone have to cut back on their personal freedom to mitigate those issues? Big tec created a monstrosity of an algorithm manipulated internet to maximise their investment opportunities and somehow no one is putting the responsability on them to remove their own digital cancer from our society. Instead we get to feed the algonet even more of our personal data to make the issues even worse. That’s the shitty part.
“For four months, all of us in France will have to prove our age,” she told journalists.
It absolutely is shit. It’s at best a medicine to treat a symptom. Not the disease itself, though imho trying to reign in the “algorithms” haven’t really worked so far. Especially since it only wants to spread, and the enshitification gets only worse.
In a better world, there would be better options. But this isn’t (yet) that world unfortunately.
Yeah, probably a problem most people in the world are aware of and concerned about, however IMHO this doesn’t seem to be aimed at solving it.