Comment by infinite_spin

3 days ago

there are plenty of alternatives if we're willing to shift these costs and responsibility to ISPs, which could separate the internet into two networks, one for children and the other for the rest of us. This is technically just as feasible, and probably cheaper than requiring every website to process (and probably retain) personally identifiable information.. significantly safer too.

But that wouldn't come with baked in surveillance, so "what else can you do" sounds a bit unnerving.

> if we're willing to shift these costs and responsibility to ISPs, which could separate the internet into two networks, one for children and the other for the rest of us. This is technically just as feasible, and probably cheaper than requiring every website to process

It really wouldn't be.

Do that at OSI layer 3, every routed packet would have to have an "was this sent by a kid's device" flag.

Higher levels aren't the ISP's role. Lower levels, you'd need duplicate hardware specifically for kids, which couldn't connect to the adult's internet.

In the real world, we're still arguing about something that was already embarrassingly slow in its roll-out during my degree, and I graduated 20 years ago: IPv6.

  • > Lower levels, you'd need duplicate hardware specifically for kids, which couldn't connect to the adult's internet.

    This would also breed more interest in hardware modifications and thus leading more kids into the technical field. Sounds like a win win situation.

    • If sparking such interests is your goal, I'd pick hardware that's ancient and chunky, easy to see what bits it has and pull them out, put new ones in. Nothing newer than 1999.

      Such things can't run modern websites either.

      3 replies →