The justification of the slippery slope is pretty simple.

They ask to add in a DoB field that must be filled out and reported at all times. So we add it into our systems and say no big deal. If you hate it put down your birthday as 1900-01-01 and call it a day.

But what is the problem with a self reported, unconfirmed field like this? It is utterly useless BECAUSE it is a self reported, unconfirmed field. It doesn’t solve any problem AND it doesn’t provide any real personal information. So why even ask for it?

The two options are malicious intent and stupidity that tech can’t be worked around.

We can skip the latter as stupid people will always be stupid. So the former, malicious intent. When they point out that this new law isn’t actually fixing things because of the fact people are lying about their age they will inevitably say we need government IDs added to the system. They will not only make sure you are the correct age for content, but know WHO is viewing such content and they will be tracking it.

Now you might say, wait there is a third option, benevolent people actually wanting safety. Creating a system where personal information is mandatory to your interaction with the internet creates a security target that we all know cannot be covered. And we also know that all tech can be broken so kids will find a way around this stuff. Using your parent’s ID, a globally shared fake ID, hacking the protocol for certification. they will get around it.

The slope is slippery because the only options are

• Stupid => which falls down the hill on accident
• Benevolent => which falls down the hill because its a vertical cliff face that can’t be scaled
• Malicious => they push you down the hill because they are assholes