The Fediverse is at risk by the EU KIDS ACT!

cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/53166284

This law affects everyone, especially people in the EU and is an attempt to implement ID verification on: Video-sharing platforms, #AI chatbots, AI companions, games, software app stores and operating systems. mastodon.social/@madeindex/117285674482286098

We need to: #STOPEUKIDSACT NOW!

www.heise.de/en/background/Age-verification-in-the-Fediverse-How-the-KIDS-Act-challenges-Mastodon-11474306.html

Man this is fucking exhausting. The treadmill of these policies.

EU lemmings, who or what groups are promoting these? It feels like every time one gets defeated another crops up and that it’s relentless. Is this an astroturfed or organic campaign?

There’s broad support for stopping predatory behavior by corporations that are targetting kids (and adults, but mostly kids). This is mostly the same stuff people have been complaining about for a decade or so at this point. Loot boxes, gacha mechanics, ad infested (and therefore stuffed with spyware for “marketing”), complicated multilayered digital currencies, battle passes, daily login rewards, etc. Basically all the well known dark patterns.

However rather than addressing the bad behavior directly, politicians either through malice or incompetence (likely at the behest of corporate lobbyists) keep putting forth these ID laws that just make things worse instead of actually solving the problem people have been complaining about.

These politicians know full well what they’re doing. At least they should and there’s no excuse. But they know.