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The end begins - age-gating

I kind of miss the old days... a time when the internet was reserved for us geeks and a few academics.

Sure, the world wide web was a much smaller place, <BLINK> was the HTML tab we all used to show how sophisticated our skills were and Comic Sans was the font to rule all fonts -- but at least we were free.

There was no censorship, no guards on the doors demanding "papers please" and the online was ours to explore without restriction; aside from the $10 per megabyte data charges that is.

Today however, all that changes.

Well it changes for under-16s in Australia at least.

As of December 10th (today as I write this), social media sites must bar access to those who can't prove they are at least 16 years of age. For them, such places as Facebook, Instagram, and a raft of other platforms are a "no go" area.

On the face of it, this might appear to be a "won't someone think of the children" situation but it's anything but.

The reality is that this is the very sharp end of a wedge that will slowly slide between the butt-cheeks of every man, woman and child in that nation. Eventually this "papers please" regime will also spread across the face of the globe.

You are also in the firing line, trust me on this.

The reality is that this move is not so much about protecting children from the evils of the online world as it is about forcing you, me and everyone else to hand over identification before we can be trusted to go into the online world.

Governments now realise just what a huge threat an open and free internet has become to their ability to control the narrative and shape the minds of their citizens, whilst also suppressing discussions that might encourage dissent.

If people can say whatever they want while hiding behind a screen of anonymity, what is to stop them saying hurty things about our political establisments and their leaders?

We can't have that... can we?

The reality is that under-16s have always had access to the seedier aspects of human life.

I recall copies of Playboy and Penthouse secretly doing the rounds of the playground when I was a strapping young lad at high-school. I also recall joining a bunch of friends to attend a "blue movie" night, held in the stables of a farm just outside of town.

Hell, back in those days you could even find recipes for explosives in your favourite encyclopedia down at the town library. I know because I made plenty of bang-stuff as a result of those weighty tomes of knowledge, in those pre-internet days.

The very fact that the Australian government simultaneously rolls out this age-ban on internet use whilst also demonstrating the use of a VPN that allows anyone of any age to side-step that ban shows how the real goal has little to do with the safety of minors.

Sadly, Australia is just the first of the Western-world dominos to fall. The UK is lined up to be next and already a growing number of US states are also rolling out age-gating as a strawman for killing anonymous access to social media platforms.

The crazy thing with the Aussie situation is that even though they claim to be "saving the kids", this age-gating doesn't seem to apply to a bunch of porn sites or gambling sites.

I guess sharing things with your other under-16 mates is considered far more harmful than watching a bit of rumpy-bumpy or being lured into throwing money at foreign criminal gangs masquerading as casino websites.

Surely the world has reached its peak capacity for absorbing idiotic, disingenuous politicians who think they can roll out BS smoke-screens to cover their paranoid delusions.

Carpe Diem folks!

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