I totally understand that. And FWIW, I used to sit squarely in the camp that this wasn’t just foolish, it was nefarious.
But the challenge is really in how the UK has decided to implement this - zero knowledge proofs should have been a legal requirement like it is the the EU infrastructure regulation.
If there really, truly was no way to tie back proving your age to who proved their age, then surely this is a good thing? The slippery slope argument I understand but it is, at heart, at fallacy. “Well, if you start putting people in prison for murder, then pretty soon you’ll start putting people in prison for breathing”.
I’m obviously against having to prove your identity to access some content. But can I not support having to prove your age (in a fully anonymous way) without automatically saying “let’s know exactly who is accessing what and when”?
In the UK all pornography has to be sold in a licensed store for which you have to be 18 to enter.
Yes, obviously the internet has made that slightly anachronistic at this point, but age restrictions and having to prove your age is extremely common here.
16 to buy a lottery ticket. 18 to buy a scratch card. 16 to buy an energy drink. 18 to buy tobacco. 16 to drink a low-alcohol drink with a meal and an adult in a licensed establishment. 18 to buy a drink in a licensed established. 18 to buy alcohol to take away (“off licensed”).
Kids have to prove their age ALL THE TIME. My daughter never goes anywhere without a means of proving her age.
Why is online special?
Your analogy is poor, in my humble opinion. The alcohol you have in your home you had to be legal age to buy in the first place. Similarly if you had a porn DVD at home you would have had to prove your age when you bought it (at least here in the UK). Given that online pornography is streamed there is only “now” to prove that you’re of legal age to watch it.
Are you against age gating on everything? If not, why is age gating on some things fine but age gating on other things wrong?
In the U.K. you can buy alcohol online. When it gets delivered the delivery driver has to check your age before handing it over to you.