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Comment by kaboomshebang | Hacker News Reader

Kids will always find ways around regulation. Look at cigarettes, vapes, alcohol, weed; they will just get it from their dealers. Pornography? I expect something like: download a Torrent, get it from a classmate, share HardDrives in school, get it through an older brother.

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And bootleggers will always bootleg, and smugglers will always smuggle. For that matter, murderers will find ways to murder.

Shall we just abolish all laws? None of them have any effect whatsoever, if they are even slightly imperfect... by your rule.

Yeah his point suggests we should stop ID'ing at liquor stores, physical porn stores, etc.

I'm not suggesting that actually. I look at my nephews and see them buy cigerettes, vapes, etc from small dealers instead of stores. Not saying we should just let them smoke, just expecting that they will be able to circumvent online age restrictions as well.

My question is: are digital age verifications the best way to protect kids from harmfull effects of pornography? And my worry is: what unwanted side-effects will age verification have for our society as a whole.

>Kids will always find ways around regulation.

And porn companies should always be held responsible for not doing their due diligence and freely distributing porn to minors. Which is already illegal in teh US and most places.

It’s just defence in depth and wholly appropriate for it to be imperfect

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