Comment by phatfish
12 days ago
That's no reason to just give up. Do we give up on schools because they are attractive to paedophiles?
Children should be safe online and in school or nursery.
We should try our best to protect children online in a similar way that there are age restrictions in the real world like for alcohol and movies. It won't ever be 100% but for parents who care it helps greatly.
For abuse perpetrated by an adult on children we should strive to stop 100% of cases, but unfortunately that is not possible either.
I'm not saying to give up, I'm saying that "for children" spaces online can be counterproductive. Comparing to physical spaces where everyone can see your age and everyone can see what you do, makes no sense.
Open online spaces directed at children are more dangerous for children than the average open online space. Age verification doesn't help at all with that.