this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2025
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Canada’s proposed Bill S-209, which addresses online age verification, is currently making its way through the Senate, and its passage would be yet another mistake in tech policy.

The bill is intended to restrict young peoples’ access to online pornography and to hold providers to account for making it available to anyone under 18. It may be well-intentioned, but the manner of its proposed enforcement – mandating age verification or what is being called “age-estimation technologies” – is troubling.

Globally, age-verification tools are a popular business, and many companies are in favour of S-209, particularly because it requires that websites and organizations rely on third parties for these tools. However, they bring up long-standing concerns over privacy, especially when you consider potential leaks or hacks of this information, which in some cases include biometrics that can identify us by our faces or fingerprints. [...]

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[–] gravitywell@sh.itjust.works 25 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Its not "well intentioned”, the silpery slope is the point. Getting porn sites to essentially self censor by restricting what geographic regions have accesss until one day its the majority of places and suddenly banning porn sites in the remaining hold outs doesnt seem like such a hard sell, and then on to other subjects they dont like.

[–] NotSteve_@piefed.ca 22 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (2 children)

I was never excited for Carney (and the Liberals' continuation of power), but I really didn't think they'd anger me as much as they have been*. Yes, I'm happy we don't have PP in power, but at times it's feeling like we may as well have reached the same outcome minus the culture war shit.

I really hope the NDP makes a strong comeback**

Edit (corrections):

*Apparently it was not a bill put forward by Liberal MPs

**The NDP actually supported the first bill of this kind so they're not much help in this situation

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I'm not one to glaze Carney, but for the benefit of factuality - this bill was proposed by a senator, not a Liberal MP under Carney. We'll see whether it goes further.

[–] NotSteve_@piefed.ca 4 points 1 hour ago

Thank you for the correction, I'll update my comment

[–] morbidcactus@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Afaik this is a senate bill and similar to s210 from last parliament, the NDP voted in favour of that one last session which I'm extremely disappointed about, I recall the NDP being pro privacy in the past, which totally got some of my friends interested in them in the first place.

It's even more disappointing that the liberals were the only party with Nay votes on that one. I realise that wasn't passing this bill but still, unimpressed.

Edit. This showed up earlier too in s203 back a few parliaments ago. Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne is the sponsor on all of these.

[–] NotSteve_@piefed.ca 2 points 1 hour ago

Ah, you're correct (sadly). Now that you mention it I remember the NDP voting in favour for that which is depressing to say the least

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

It's always referred to as age verification, but it's ID verification. It's the introduction of a regime where you can't use the internet without everyone knowing exactly who you are, and without the government being able to track your activity via your ID. Governments around the world are making what must surely be a coordinated effort to end anonymity, and thus privacy, online. In other countries this has gone along with a push to end encryption for phone calls and chat, and a push to outlaw VPNs. Canada's government is embarking on a program that's very hostile to its own population.

[–] cecilkorik@piefed.ca 13 points 1 hour ago

The dark web became known as the hideout of internet criminals. Once we're all internet criminals, it will just be the hideout of everyone. Time to drop all these commercial services that we've let take over the internet and go back to being anonymous weirdos talking to other anonymous weirdos on websites run by anonymous weirdos. The web was ironically a nicer place. Also a shittier place, but at the same time a nicer place. This is why we can't have nice things.

[–] Sunshine@piefed.ca 11 points 2 hours ago

Stop that garbage bill that will expose your data to criminals in data breaches.

[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

Nooooo, I thought Canada was very far from this bull shit

[–] NotSteve_@piefed.ca 4 points 1 hour ago

So did I 🥲

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 1 points 56 minutes ago

Call or write to your MP. Let them know that no one wants this.

[–] gwl@piefed.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 hour ago

That's always been the point.

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 5 points 1 hour ago

How about instead we ban propaganda and bots?

[–] rozodru@pie.andmc.ca 2 points 1 hour ago

Manwin is based out of Montreal, i.e. Pornhub. I can't see this passing. Canada is quite literally the porn capital of the world, trust me I know I worked for 3 separate porn companies here in Canada. I just don't see it happening.

[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Conspiracy: We just learned a large, organized, and barely secret pedophile ring consisting of high level government officials and business people is/was controlling the American government and probably most large western corporations

Sounds like they actually want everyone back onto the sites that don’t verify ages or content because it will destroy the regulated porn industry entirely.