Pluralistic: Spying on kids to save kids from spying is very, very stupid (23 Jun 2026)
"Age verification" laws are actually mass surveillance that would make privacy illegal, playing into Big Tech's hands. The author argues online harms to kids stem from surveillance, and the solution is privacy protections, not tracking mandates that could later be used for immigration enforcement.
Background
Cory Doctorow is a Canadian-British journalist, author, and activist known for his sharp critiques of Big Tech, surveillance capitalism, and digital rights. His blog Pluralistic.net is a fixture in tech-policy discourse.
- The article argues that "age verification" laws — pushed by an unlikely alliance of anti-Big Tech activists and conservative culture warriors — would actually require mass surveillance of every internet user, not just kids.
- Doctorow warns that such laws serve the interests of the surveillance-advertising industry (Google, Meta, etc.) by making privacy illegal, and that the logical next step is banning VPNs.
- Key reference: The US has not updated federal consumer privacy law since 1988 (the Video Privacy Protection Act). The EU's GDPR exists but is poorly enforced because most Big Tech cases fall under Ireland's jurisdiction, which is notoriously lenient.
- Doctorow frames this as part of a larger pattern: surveillance data used to "protect kids" today can be used by immigration enforcement (ICE) tomorrow for rounding up targets.