Conservatives Double Down on Support for Mandated Internet Age Verification and Website Blocking: Why Can’t Canada Get Common Sense Digital Policy? michaelgeist.ca/2024/02/conser…
Age verification to access online porn is not a partisan issue. The Senate passed Bill S-210 with no opposition. In the House of Commons, the bill is supported by the NDP, CPC, Bloc, Greens and 15 Liberal MPs. Germany, France, the EU, and the UK have all adopted age verification for online porn. Spain announced it will do the same soon. Several U.S. states have passed age-verification laws with unanimous, bipartisan support. Bill S-210 does not impose or specify a particular age-verification method, other than setting strict privacy and effectiveness parameters at Clause 11. This is normal and it's what other jurisdictions have done: identifying appropriate AV mechanisms is a technical issue, the technology evolves constantly, and we cannot pass a bill that becomes obsolete after a few months. Approving AV methods will be done in regulations, after extensive consultations. Note that Germany has already approved 80+ AV methods and that France is developing a "double anonymous" system. Things are moving quickly. Bill S-210 does not target specific sites or platforms, only pornographic content, as defined in section 171.1(5) of the Criminal code, with the usual exemptions for science, education, art, etc. The AV obligation applies only to porn content - not necessarily to the entire website. For example, if a website contains 20% porn and 80% non-porn, AV would only be mandatory for the 20% portion. This is how we deal with alcohol, tobacco, gambling and porn in the real world, and it's only logical to apply the same approach online. Other approaches would lead to absurd results, such as allowing minors to access porn on some sites, but not on others. For more background, references and answers to questions on Bill S-210, please see: bills210-lois210.ca
@mgeist #PierrePoilievre, Canadian gatekeeper
@mgeist Let's not lose sight of who currently sits in the Prime Minister's chair and has been shoving disastrous policies down Canadian's throats for almost a decade. This is a Conservative policy proposal they need to correct course on and not a done deal.
@mgeist It happened earlier than I expected — but it was always a matter of time until the Conservatives’ false libertarian messaging would fall away and reveal the censorious authoritarianism baked into both establishment parties.
@mgeist Every government this country ever gets wants to control everything we say, see and hear, it's been this way since the 70's.
@mgeist This is common sense. We already require ID for alcohol and gambling.
@mgeist Meanwhile conservatives flock to VPNs and pay with cryptocurrency