Age Verification – Not what it seems

Most of us agree that in order to have a healthy society, we need the freedom to speak up about the things that matter to us. Social media should make this possible, without fear of being unfairly targeted, manipulated or our data being misused or unjustly censored. 

We trust young people to navigate their world when we give them the tools and skills to do so and when our government prevents social media corporations from manipulating us.

Young people should have the right to access information, seek support, explore identity, and connect with community, like anyone else.

The internet should be a space of possibility, not a gated compound where all of us have to hand over even more of our personal data to profit hungry corporations, in order to learn about your body or find others like you.

When we talk about “keeping kids off” platforms, we’re already losing. We’ve accepted that online spaces are fundamentally unsafe – toxic by design – and our only move is to build higher walls. 

This government wants to turn the internet into a checkpoint. They are using parents’ fear for their children’s safety online as an excuse to let social media corporations off the hook while passing responsibility and blame to parents, teachers, and young people. 

Instead of forcing Big Tech to clean up the toxic mess they’ve created, this government is demanding we all hand over our IDs just to exist online. Every post will be traced back to your passport; every search linked to your name. This isn’t protection. It’s a digital dragnet dressed up as child safety.

We don’t stop harm by building a surveillance state. We stop it by holding social media owners accountable. Tech companies design platforms that weaponise hate and feed on outrage and they get rich on the back of this. 

Freedom isn’t the problem, it’s the foundation. We don’t trade it away for the illusion of safety.

When the UK government tried to force Digital IDs on everyone, people spoke up and won. Now Ireland’s government is hoping we’ll stay quiet while they build the same type of surveillance machine, under the guise of child safety. 

They’re wrong. We know a free and open internet isn’t a luxury – it’s the oxygen a healthy democracy breathes. And we know the difference between actual safety and a data grab dressed up as protection.

They’re counting on our silence. Together, we defend the internet we need: open, accessible, safe for us all, no exceptions. Together we can protect our privacy and freedom by refusing to allow even more surveillance and unjust censorship.

The answer is not to allow Big Tech billionaires turn the internet into some awful swamp full of hate speech and sexual harrassment and then ban kids from using it. The answer is to force these platforms to clean up their act and stop pushing polarising and addictive content. None of us want to visit the swamp no matter what age we are. The internet belongs to all of us and we don’t want it ruined by a few greedy billionaires who don’t care about the rest of us.

This government must back away from banning young people from being allowed to use social media and instead force social media corporations to:

a) turn off toxic recommender algorithms by default

b) ban AI tools that are used to harass and abuse people

c) stop allowing our personal and private information be used to target, sell to and track us.

• Age verification harms users of all ages | The Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Online age verification could create more problems than it solves | CATO Institute
• 10 not-so-hidden dangers of age verification | The Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Why age verification misses the mark and puts everyone at risk | European Digital Rights (EDRi)
• Is age verification really keeping kids safe or just risking your privacy? | PC Magazine
• Social media age bans will fail because they are not radical enough | The London School of Economics
• Life after Molly: Ian Russell on big tech, his daughter’s death – and why a social media ban won’t work | The Guardian