See update below — Ed
A quick thought on the news today reporting that Pierre Poilievre said to protect children from viewing online porn (a laudable goal, obviously), proof of age — some sort of ID or face scan — should be required by law.
Here’s one of the few places I disagree with the policy ideas put forth by the Poilievre-led Conservatives thus far.
In general, the government should stop trying to police the internet. Policing the internet and knocking back our freedoms is normally a Liberal/NDP or progressive-type policy bailiwick but here comes the Conservatives weighing in where they shouldn’t.
I do acknowledge the problem of underage boys and girls accessing porn, as I said.
The concern in demanding ID is the inevitable hacking and the resulting outing of people — adults and children alike — who engage. You don’t need a narrator to explain, here, that THIS WILL HAPPEN.
So you might say “I don’t care if this scares off adults fearful of being outed one day in a hack [narrator: which will definitely happen] because nobody should be looking at porn.”
Well great. You’re more Catholic than the Pope. But no, the correct answer is that freedom demands that people be allowed to do what they please as long as it legal and does not harm others, including harm done to those who can’t speak for themselves. And to be able to do so without fear of absolutely terrible consequences like nationally broadcast embarrassment or public humiliation and possible virtual flogging. A hack would also lead to millions of extortion and blackmail attempts. Lives could be severely tarnished.
Let God or Karma take care of the moral angle.
Let technology — and good old-fashioned parenting — take care of underage viewing of porn. Locks can be installed by parents easily at home on all internet devices (to the extent that parents even allow internet usage to children out of their sightlines — is something I’m very skeptical about).
Thus the issue is alleviated if not pretty much solved without the (damned) state interfering once again in our lives and putting us at grave risk to our reputations and jobs and relationships and whatever else. Schools have locks on computers and I haven’t heard of rampant porn viewing by children at school (except of course the mostly gay and “trans” porn in “sex guidebooks” in school libraries).
Another technology-based answer could, for example, be to make users pay for the viewing — as many websites including news websites like the Globe and Mail do now. Children don’t have credit cards, or access to money in the way that would be necessary to pay for stuff online — otherwise, most parents would be bankrupt by now — am I right parents?! If the business model of the porn mongers is to offer the viewing for free, say because it’s based on an advertising model (who advertises on porn sites?), then they could charge and refund the fee.
This is yet another area of life where the government need not get involved, and technology — and parents — once again can and do come to the rescue, offering far better solutions than the (damned) government anyway.
Lest you imagine the Liberals are coming out looking good on this issue, drop that crap. This notion of proving your age to a bunch of unknown porn mongers on the internet — well first of all it was a Liberal (sorry — “Independent” — wink!) Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne — another former correspondent for the state-owned CBC who first proposed it. But it isn’t enough for the Liberals in the House. As the CTV News story explains, “The Liberals were the only ones to vote against the [age verification] bill in the House, saying it doesn’t do enough…“. They plan to introduce a bill with a full suite of rules and regulations that will make the simple age verification look quaint. That sounds about right. Think the vax mandates, ArriveCan, lockdowns, and bank account freezes, talk of a digital currency and national digital ID. They know this file only too well.
I strongly suggest the Conservatives change course on this and in the future, run stuff by me ;-).
UPDATE Feb 24 2024:
Watch this video and you’ll see where Pierre Poilievre definitively walks back the notion of mandating age-verification tech to verify ID to visit sites, choosing instead to provide information to PARENTS to control kids’ access, and going after sites that target kids like alcohol and tobacco we use rules today. See the answer at the 3:30 mark.
Extended: Pierre Poilievre interview (ctvnews.ca)
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