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submitted 3 days ago by NotSteve_@piefed.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca

Canada’s proposed Bill S-209, which addresses online age verification, is currently making its way through the Senate, and its passage would be yet another mistake in tech policy.

The bill is intended to restrict young peoples’ access to online pornography and to hold providers to account for making it available to anyone under 18. It may be well-intentioned, but the manner of its proposed enforcement – mandating age verification or what is being called “age-estimation technologies” – is troubling.

Globally, age-verification tools are a popular business, and many companies are in favour of S-209, particularly because it requires that websites and organizations rely on third parties for these tools. However, they bring up long-standing concerns over privacy, especially when you consider potential leaks or hacks of this information, which in some cases include biometrics that can identify us by our faces or fingerprints. [...]

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[-] GodofLies@lemmy.ca 12 points 2 days ago

"Those that trade privacy for security deserve neither."

How about they start addressing the actual problem rather than half-measures from think tanks. If it was truly about children, they should be passing policies from a macro standpoint that encourage people to have a family and kids. Right now, it's economically grim and has been sliding that way for many decades. The rise of fascist and surveillance state policies is only going to make it worse. Say bye-bye to your birthrate and we're right back where we started again with the gov trying to pump the numbers via mass immigration.

What does all this have to do with this bill? The intent may be framed as protecting/preventing kids from adult material, but it's also about making it desirable to have kids because "big brother is watching you/protecting you" (SMH here on how stupid this all is). These legislators are out of touch. We as a society need to address the root of the problem - why do we have a CSAM problem in the first place? It's a horrific thing to have, and to be honest, those that turn to it likely have a mental illness.

As for kids accessing adult material online - why is the government being a nanny state? This is the parent's job.

I have zero confidence that they can keep everyone's data private and safe given how many breaches there are.

this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2025
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