Comment by andrepd

> The only way to prove that someone is old enough to use a site is to collect personal data about who they are. And the only way to prove that you checked is to keep the data indefinitely.

Well isn't this premise false from the get go? Many countries (not the US sure, but others) have digitised ID. Services can request info from the ID provider; in this case social media websites would simply request a bool isOver16, literally one bit of information, to grant access. No other information needs to be leaked, and no need for idiotic setups like sending photos of your passport to god knows what website (or god knows what external vendor that website uses for ID verification).

Seems silly to worry about this when social media itself is predicated on collecting gigabytes of data about you daily.

Again, this is not about half assed solutions that force you to send photos of your passport to websites. That's a terrible idea for the reasons discussed in the article. But it's obviously false that this is the only way.