The internet was built on anonymity. A client computer makes a request to a server, but the server doesn’t know who is operating that client computer. It knows a few things about the client — its IP address, and a few other things — but it doesn’t know if the user is an adult, a man, a woman, a child, a routing device of some kind, or a bot.
Servers can be set up to require credentials from the client, but the basic http structure is built on anonymity.
Marketers have been trying to get around that for years, using various techniques to identify the person behind the client computer. Browser fingerprinting and other things can be used to narrow things down, but it’s still essentially anonymous.
Is that a good thing?
I don’t think so. It’s appropriate to have restrictions on access to some content. In the real world, we don’t allow children to even enter certain venues, much less purchase the things available there. But the internet is wide open. Kids can “enter” all sorts of inappropriate places by simply clicking the “I’m over 18” button, or by entering a phony birthdate.
We wouldn’t permit that at the beer sales counter, or when a kid wants to buy pornography at the 7-11. Why do we permit it on porn sites?
And porn isn’t the only problem. One takeaway from yesterday’s hearings on Facebook is that research has shown that many social media sites are harmful to children. Facebook knew this, and they hid it. It’s been called Facebook’s “Big Tobacco moment.”
In the real world, we don’t want somebody monitoring everywhere we go and everything we do — although we’re getting close to that with facial recognition and the phones we carry around all the time. And I understand people’s interest in protecting their privacy. I’m not suggesting everyone has to register to access the internet.
This isn’t a binary thing — i.e., either you’re anonymous or you have to disclose your identity. We don’t want the Stasi going around saying, “Papers, please!”
I’m sure there’s a way for an adult to identify as an adult without having to give Big Tech, or the FBI, or whoever, a record of everything he does online.
That’s what we need — some sort of gatekeeper technology to identify adults and children on the internet.
Someone will object that there will always be ways around it. Sure. And kids use phony driver’s licenses to buy beer. That’s not an excuse not to try. But more importantly, having such a regime in place sends a cultural message that we still have standards, and that children need to be protected against some things.
What you suggest can be of great benefit in protecting children. It’s gotten so that if you do a simple, benign search, racy material can pop up. The more resources for protection, the better (with some limits on privacy invasion).
Yet, what also can help tremendously is parents/adults being more mindful as to how they provide access to the Internet and tools they employ to help manage access safely. None of the following will guarantee child safety but they might mitigate some risks:
-Denying unsupervised Internet access until the child has demonstrated the ability to handle full access responsibility.
-Placing computers/Internet accessible items in common areas of the home.
-Blocking/monitoring software on phone and devices.
-Ongoing parent/child dialogue about appropriate Internet/social media usage.
-Requiring children to have parents “follow” or be “friends” on social media.
-Periodically examining search histories and other resources that highlight sites visited.
-Appropriate consequences for parental guideline violations.
Those are all good suggestions.
If I had to do it over again, I would have structured my home network so that all traffic had to go through one computer, where I could add filters, monitor the logs, etc. But that wouldn’t help with cell phones that are not using wifi. :/
We did many of those things when my kids were younger and it seems to have helped. Believe me, it took a lot of restraint, creativity, dialogue and prayer. It would have been easier to mandate many things relative to the Internet. Yet, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. I’m sure there are things we don’t know but it seems they were able to navigate the Internet safely as minors and are now using it in a morally responsible way as young adults. For me and my wife, that was the goal.