It's US News, so maybe ~society is a better place? Idk, feel free to move at your discretion. But it does have to do with tech and a frequent topic around these parts: age verification online....
It's US News, so maybe ~society is a better place? Idk, feel free to move at your discretion. But it does have to do with tech and a frequent topic around these parts: age verification online.
In Texas’s case, the legislature passed Senate Bill 2420, entitled the “App Store Accountability Act,” which would require age verification, parental controls, and warning labels on various app stores and apps.
A couple of lawsuits were filed to challenge the law—one from CCIA, the trade group representing a bunch of internet companies, and another from a bunch of students who pointed out that the law violated their rights. Last week, judge Robert Pitman ruled in both cases, putting the law on hold and noting that the law pretty clearly violated the First Amendment, because the law is extremely overbroad and not at all narrowly targeted:
Lots of quotes pulled from the court documents, but if you want to read the orders and opinions in their entirety yourself, the article does show them at the bottom.
Regardless of where you fall on the debate of age verification online, I think we can all agree that governments -- local/subnational, national, international -- should not be trying to place age verification everywhere in the name of "protecting children." That's ripe for abuse, as this Texas federal judge is saying. Maybe there is a time and place for age verification to prevent kids from seeing or interacting with certain things online. I don't know; it's complicated and I have complicated thoughts on it all. But everywhere and all the time shouldn't be it.
I haven't dug into the details of this bill, and only skimmed the linked article (which may well be accurate, but is also highly opinionated). Could you clarify the "everywhere and all the time"...
I haven't dug into the details of this bill, and only skimmed the linked article (which may well be accurate, but is also highly opinionated). Could you clarify the "everywhere and all the time" aspect? I assume it would not apply, eg, to European minors living in Europe, nor Asian kids, etc.
I'm asking, in particular, because Wisconsin is trying to push thru an anti-VPN law which literally would target "everyone, everywhere" in the sense that no website that works in Wisconsin, and no one on Earth that visits a website in Wisconsin, could use a VPN to do it ... which, broadly, seems like the result would just be "okay, let's just geoblock every website on Earth to not work in Wisconsin", but who knows how it'll play out.
I'm reading the article as the law requiring age verification for everyone the app store can tell is located in Texas. Apparently apps pre-installed on the phone are excluded, including web browsers.
I'm reading the article as the law requiring age verification for everyone the app store can tell is located in Texas. Apparently apps pre-installed on the phone are excluded, including web browsers.
It's US News, so maybe ~society is a better place? Idk, feel free to move at your discretion. But it does have to do with tech and a frequent topic around these parts: age verification online.
Lots of quotes pulled from the court documents, but if you want to read the orders and opinions in their entirety yourself, the article does show them at the bottom.
Regardless of where you fall on the debate of age verification online, I think we can all agree that governments -- local/subnational, national, international -- should not be trying to place age verification everywhere in the name of "protecting children." That's ripe for abuse, as this Texas federal judge is saying. Maybe there is a time and place for age verification to prevent kids from seeing or interacting with certain things online. I don't know; it's complicated and I have complicated thoughts on it all. But everywhere and all the time shouldn't be it.
I haven't dug into the details of this bill, and only skimmed the linked article (which may well be accurate, but is also highly opinionated). Could you clarify the "everywhere and all the time" aspect? I assume it would not apply, eg, to European minors living in Europe, nor Asian kids, etc.
I'm asking, in particular, because Wisconsin is trying to push thru an anti-VPN law which literally would target "everyone, everywhere" in the sense that no website that works in Wisconsin, and no one on Earth that visits a website in Wisconsin, could use a VPN to do it ... which, broadly, seems like the result would just be "okay, let's just geoblock every website on Earth to not work in Wisconsin", but who knows how it'll play out.
I'm reading the article as the law requiring age verification for everyone the app store can tell is located in Texas. Apparently apps pre-installed on the phone are excluded, including web browsers.