If you were one of few pinning your hopes for Senator Elizabeth Warren to have your back as a user of the free internet – the latest legislative efforts she has been heavily backed might just burst your bubble.
The same goes for those who had the same hopes regarding the activities of Senator Josh Hawley. These two – a prominent Democrat, and a Republican of the same stature – have thrown their weight behind what’s known as the Kids Online Safety Act [PDF].
Online age verification through digital ID is one of its proposed provisions – a topic, and practice, at this point historically burdened with controversies regarding endangering internet users’ privacy and safety, while cynically asserting to be “solving” just the very problem.
It all boils down to the fact that in thr U.S, it cant be enforced because our identity and SSN are tied together, and losing said SSN would be VERY detrimental, so companies cant ask for it (unless they have government approval of course).
In countries like Korea, KSSNs for example are used for registration purposes and more like IDs, while monetary business like banks would ask for TIN/RRN (Tax Identification number/Resident Registration Number). This distiction allows for online checks to process fine as SSN is essentially name, birthdate and very very basic details only. Korea uses it for instance to monitor game time of minors.
Because the U.S does not have distiction between IDs, theres absolutely no way without security problems without risk of identity theft because U.S SSN are used for extremely critical things like loans and banking.
This makes so much sense. For that reason, it can’t happen in the US