The Spanish government has a plan to prevent kids from watching porn online: Meet the porn passport.
Officially (and drily) called the Digital Wallet Beta (Cartera Digital Beta), the app Madrid unveiled on Monday would allow internet platforms to check whether a prospective smut-watcher is over 18. Porn-viewers will be asked to use the app to verify their age. Once verified, they’ll receive 30 generated “porn credits” with a one-month validity granting them access to adult content. Enthusiasts will be able to request extra credits.
You have to request more porn credits from the government if you need more? Don’t want the government to be tracking this data of you. This is a privacy issue
I don’t think this is that bad compared to the alternatives I’ve seen (it doesn’t tie your identity to the content you’re viewing, only the use of your credits) but I would be curious to know if the government is also reexamining its sex education curriculum and delivery at the same time. Banning porn won’t magically improve the attitudes of young people (particularly men) towards their sexual partners.
The website can’t know this, but the government can easily (and I bet will) link an identity to a token, and know where and when it is used. It can also request metadata on usage of a token, which websites will no doubt want to store.
That the government can track this sort of thing is bad enough, but I’m especially concerned that it or both parties will leak/share/sell their databases, allowing anyone to do the same.
Why do you assume they will? From the design document it sounds like that’s not how it will work. You mentioned data leaks but it sounds like there is no history log to leak.
I think this is bad because it doesn’t solve any problems (efficacy of age verification systems is questionable at best) and introduces new problems (token system violates privacy). Censorship under governments creates black markets and reduces privacy at taxpayer expense. If they are concerned about child safety maybe they should start with what studies show are the most effective ways to accomplish that goal as opposed to ineffective, expensive wastes of time.