I obviously totally disagree (otherwise there'd be no reason for me to keep building), and I'll explain why.
Working backwards, I think the device is exactly the wrong place for enforcement. Devices are not individuals and individuals are not their devices. Devices are tools for interacting with the open internet. Multiple people can share one and most persons own multiple. Additionally, we don't treat any aspect of our society with this attitude. Would it be preferable for 16 year olds to be provisioned cars that were unable to turn into the parking lot of a liquor store so that the work of verifying the customer's age would not be "outsourced to people who don't want to do it"? I like the real world, and I think we have done a pretty good job at organizing ourselves as a society, and it's my sincere belief that our interactions online would benefit by closer reflecting those that happen in the material world. I wrote about this at length in the essay in comments below.
Second, while it is admittedly a very difficult challenge, the privacy can be solved, and I'm very excited to be working on it. I don't accept that the status quo or a dystopian alternative are the only two outcomes, but I do sincerely respect those in bucket 2 and their prerogative to avoid any site utilizing age verification technology. That being said, I do plan to earn the trust of many in that bucket with a bit of integrity, transparency and cryptography :)
As for bucket 3, that's exactly who this was made for.
Working backwards, I think the device is exactly the wrong place for enforcement. Devices are not individuals and individuals are not their devices. Devices are tools for interacting with the open internet. Multiple people can share one and most persons own multiple. Additionally, we don't treat any aspect of our society with this attitude. Would it be preferable for 16 year olds to be provisioned cars that were unable to turn into the parking lot of a liquor store so that the work of verifying the customer's age would not be "outsourced to people who don't want to do it"? I like the real world, and I think we have done a pretty good job at organizing ourselves as a society, and it's my sincere belief that our interactions online would benefit by closer reflecting those that happen in the material world. I wrote about this at length in the essay in comments below.
Second, while it is admittedly a very difficult challenge, the privacy can be solved, and I'm very excited to be working on it. I don't accept that the status quo or a dystopian alternative are the only two outcomes, but I do sincerely respect those in bucket 2 and their prerogative to avoid any site utilizing age verification technology. That being said, I do plan to earn the trust of many in that bucket with a bit of integrity, transparency and cryptography :)
As for bucket 3, that's exactly who this was made for.