I’m asking for public policy ideas here. A lot of countries are enacting age verification now. But of course this is a privacy nightmare and is ripe for abuse. At the same time though, I also understand why people are concerned with how kids are using social media. These products are designed to be addictive and are known to cause body image issues and so forth. So what’s the middle ground? How can we protect kids from the harms of social media in a way that respects everyone’s privacy?


You should listen/read Steve Gibson’s podcast episode from Security Now that goes over Zero Knowledge Proofs: https://www.grc.com/sn/sn-1034.htm
It seems like the ideal solution that can be implemented if we take the time to do it right.