Social media slippery slopes

Yesterday, I went through what I see as a trilemma for age-gating social media access. 

A system putting obligations and liability on social media providers to keep kids off the platform will have at least one of the following three problems:

1. Easily worked around by those under the age limit;
2. Cumbersome for those over the age limit;
3. Ends internet pseudonymity. 

I think the proponents of the proposed Member's Bill that National has endorsed envision the system being light-touch and consequently leaning on the first part of the trilemma. It's about 'sending a message' as much as it is about developing a workable regime. 

The Bill is broad enough to encompass all kinds of ways of running it. It depends what you think counts as "reasonable steps". 

Consider the lightest-touch version. 

The Minister designates only Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter - leaving everything else alone. And the Minister signals that they don't want the platforms going overboard on what's 'reasonable'. 

The platforms then require users to confirm that they are over the required age. They use various AI tools to watch for accounts that might be under-aged. Some of them, like Instagram, already do this - they try to push teenaged users onto a teen-version of the platform. 

If they suspect a user is under-aged, the platform will issue a challenge. "We think you're actually under the age limit. If you can't prove otherwise, we'll suspend your account or punt you into the kids' version (if that kid version is still legal)." 

For users falsely identified by the automated tools as being under the age limit, the trilemma applies. Either the challenge is easily worked around, or it is cumbersome for those over the age limit, or it's the end of pseudonymity. Being a light-touch regime, it leans on the former.

This does not seem like a political equilibrium. 

People will forget about the tradeoffs when it is obvious that kids are still on the networks. The Minister will put the platforms "On Notice!" that they have to do more to close loopholes. 

That pushes the designated platforms to tighten up. More users will face cumbersome checks confirming that they are over the age limits. It will be harder to maintain pseudonymity if those accounts need to be verified with a real ID. 

The more the regime is successful in keeping kids off of the regulated platforms (at cost to adult users), the more that kids will be pushed onto platforms that have not yet been designated. Those platforms will then be designated. Discord. WhatsApp. Various videogames that have chatrooms or that enable chat. 

Compliance burdens continue to rise, except on platforms outside the reach of New Zealand regulators, like 4Chan. 

The stable equilibrium at the end of that? Substantial hassles for users over the age limit and/or the end of pseudonymity, some kids deterred from using platforms, others out on forums that are far worse than where they are now. 

Recall that John Key's ban on pseudoephedrine-based cold medicines remained in place for more than a decade after it was very obvious that it had done nothing to stop meth while inconveniencing everyone with a cold.