20250103-censorship_and_tracking.txt

A law went into effect in my state where social media sites are
essentially banned to any individuals under 16 and pornographic sites
are banned to anyone under 18. How do you get around this? Before it
was as simple as clicking a button in a modal at the beginning of a
session. Annoying, but no big deal.

Now the method my state and 16 others mandate is a third-party
non-government entity verify an uploaded picture of a government ID,
ostensibly uploaded and stored by the pornographic site. Maybe it's
the verification site is the one that has to store it. I don't know,
but it's a tremendous breach of privacy and anonymity on the Internet.

I don't know about you, but I certainly don't take uploading my
government ID to a fucking random pr0n website to be a good decision.
Without using a VPN, many of which require a paid subscription, anyone
over 16 who wants to use Farcebook or anyone over 18 that wants to
view adult content is being asked to forfeit their right to privacy.

The bill was passed under the idea that it would "protect" children
from the world. While I agree 10-year-olds shouldn't be on adult
websites, I don't think the idiotic verification method is the correct
solution. All lawmakers suck because they don't understand a goddamn
thing about real people or technology, but this is a step way too far
from the fucking cunservative retards in power in my state. I can't
imagine being in high school and being blocked from using a social
media site unless I uploaded my driver license.

Here's an idea, lawmakers: why don't you let parents do the parenting?
I agree a ton of parents aren't fit for procreation or parenting, but
you're just as bad if not worse. This, at the very least, will
increase identity theft, especially by minors stealing their parent's
ID. Contributing to the delinquency of minors is a crime, too,
unintentional or not.

Smart alecks will respond "Just use a VPN." My response is two-fold:
1) I shouldn't have to use a VPN.
2) VPNs are paid, untrustworthy, or both. I actually did try Op-era's
VPN on one site and while it technically gave me access, the
performance hit was so bad it made the site unusable.

Other smart alecks will remark that not all sites are subject to or
will follow this law. That's a good argument, but it's like saying
just because your favorite grocery store now requires you to give them
a DNA sample, you can always go to Wahl Mart to get your groceries.
No, thank you.

I'm cautiously optimistic that as soon as these state senators and
other retards have to deal with this horseshit and/or their kids
complain they can't even interact with their friends on Instagram or
whatever, they'll be coerced into repealing this joke of a law.

I've never been in a more dystopian world.