I’m very liberal and very much opposed to authoritarianism. I don’t see the problem with forcing online content to be different than offline content. You gotta show ID or otherwise prove age to buy alcohol and pornography offline. Why not for online as well?

Because when you show ID to buy age-restricted things in person, nobody is keeping a record of anything. A clerk looks at your ID and that's the end of it.

Online is a completely different beast on that count.

I don’t think this is a compelling argument for keeping things as they currently stand.

Governments have a terrible track record when it comes to privacy. Everything from the USPS selling your info when you move, to the 2 dozen texts I got yesterday because the government sells[1] your voting records on the cheap. Maybe you don't agree but surely you at least understand why people are widely worried about a future where the government decides to sell your adult website access records to make a few extra bucks.

[1]: https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voter-registration/voter-re...

They should be worried. Bad governance is bad. But people do want something to be done about ease with which children can access pornography online. A solution will eventually be imposed if the industry doesn't clean things up.

It is the parents responsibility to raise their children. It's not my responsibility to have to show ID(I'm a grown adult, there is no mistaking me for someone 18 and below.. though I don't think there is any such laws in any country I would want to live in. this seems to be a fairly US centric world view).

"Think of the children"? That's the argument here?

Do you think a business should be able to sell alcohol to a 10 year child? It’s not the business’ responsibility to raise a person’s kid, afterall.

There is a big difference between storing someones credentials in a porn identification database vs showing your ID to some clerk. These things are not identical.

Of course they aren't identical. The point is that prior to the internet everyone thought it reasonable to prevent kids from accessing pornography. Now it is widely available to them online. Some people think this is not right. There are no perfect solutions.

I don't disagree. The problem is that the solutions being talked about have a large negative impact far wider than the problem they're intended to address.

Could you elaborate further on the problem you see?

I don't see a problem with "things as they currently stand".

As they currently stand anyone, regardless of age, can easily access pornographic content online.

Yes clearly ISPs, OSs, and everyone involved who is making money should provide easier and better tools for protecting kids from adult content.

But a state mandated thing associated with my ID is... iffy.

People have perfectly good reasons for wanting to protect their privacy.

But they have done that and so a government mandated solution is warranted.

Look into the Chinese identification systems associated with internet access to see where this leads. It isn't good.

We don’t have to do it the same way the Chinese do. We can implement it in a bad way or in a good way.

If you really want to buy pornography on the internet as a minor, you will have difficulties doing the transactions.

Aside from that you haven't thought about the implications of an ID system in the current political climate. Some advocates even state their real goals openly.

I don't think you are very liberal here for that matter. It is just a single issue, but it strongly correlates with positions around this particular topic.

It's easy to view pornography online regardless of age. That's what we are talking about.

Here are my leftist views: No one should have more than $10 million of wealth. Everyone should have a place to live, food, and healthcare. Healthcare should be free at the point of usage. The U.S. should stop funding Israel. Higher education should be free. Churches should pay tax on the property they own. Donations to charity should not be tax deductible. Public transportation should be heavily subsidized and greatly expanded. The DOD and CIA and NSA should be greatly reduced in size and scope. Elections should be publicly funded so that each candidate gets an equal amount of funding. Abortion should be legalized everywhere. Homeschooling should be outlawed.

Age verification that protects privacy can be done using clever cryptographic techniques.

yea but we all know it wont be

Yeah I would be 100% for that, honestly.

I'm not a big anti-adult content person, I don't think it is a big deal. Cockfighting and dogfighting used to be popular pass-times. People used to take their whole family down to the public square for a nice afternoon hanging. Brothels used to be widespread! The old world was so much seedier and dirtier and violent, stuff is tame today by comparison.

But I 1000% respect someone who wants to control their kids access to adult content. I just know there is a lot of danger in implementing a Chinese-style "internet identification system."

It turns out that "hackers" and "rich boy startups" have much less cultural overlap than the latter would have you believe.

HN is not largely populated by hackers. It's populated mostly by people working for SV-type companies.

People forget - or never realize, if they're new - that the "Hacker" in "Hacker News" refers to startup entrepreneurs "hacking" capitalism. This place used to be called "Startup News," after all.