Senator Frame, Representatives Berry and Reed,
I’m writing to oppose the imposition of age verification requirements for online services in the State of Washington.
The laws before the legislature on this topic and similar laws in other states are not privacy-preserving, but enable surveillance, risk identity theft, and suppress free expression on the internet, which has been the single greatest force for providing support to oppressed groups around the world.
The present approach of services estimating a user’s age, and requiring them to upload extremely private documents such as driver licenses if they are suspected of being a minor, is a privacy nightmare. Already, the popular Discord chat service has seen driver licenses stolen in an inevitable data breach, putting users at risk of identity theft and other fraud.
Data breaches are not a question of ‘if’, but rather of ‘when’. It is imperative to reduce the amount of private information required to participate online, because it will eventually be stolen by malicious actors.
Technologies exist to minimize information exposure while proving facts such as being born after a certain date or being of a minimum age. Known as zero-knowledge proofs, these would use a cryptographic ID issued by the state (a form of driver’s license perhaps) to mathematically prove that the user is 18 or older (for example) without disclosing any additional information.
This technology exists now and could minimize the information revealed in an age verification procedure. I would much prefer such a privacy-maximizing strategy over what is being proposed currently.
However, even such a system which discloses only a single bit of information (whether the user is of age or not) imposes serious burdens on the free speech and free association rights guaranteed in both the federal and state constitutions. These essential rights properly apply to all “persons”, not only to adults. Not all residents of the state have identity documents, or likely ever will, shutting them out of essential components of 21st century life. Free expression and assembly rights are too important to be burdened by an ID requirement.
The place to address the harms of social media and pornography use is in the home; culture, rather than law, is the correct paradigm. Savvy parents are already limiting their kids’ social media use, for example.
But the state imposing a single approach for all Washingtonians guarantees harm. What’s right for one family will be wrong for another. For example, age verification could limit a gay kid learning about his sexuality.
We are in a time of moral panic about children’s welfare. Conspiracy theories abound. Age verification laws are part and parcel of this broader freakout. Instead of adding to the madness, let’s sit this one out.
I’d appreciate hearing about your approach to this important issue.
Thank you,
Josh Hansen
See also:
- Washington Legislature Toys with Age Verification for Big Tech
- Discord Voluntarily Pushes Mandatory Age Verification Despite Recent Data Breach
Credit: cover image by Basile Morin, titled “Relief of a devil’s head with a large open mouth, golden horns and sharp teeth, at the bottom of a facade of a building facing the sidewalk in Rue du Grand Hospice, Brussels center, Belgium.”
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