Current proposals to protect children online through age verification requirements would establish pervasive surveillance systems affecting all internet users. The technical reality is that age verification necessitates fine-grained tracking and recording of everyone's online activities, making current ad-tech surveillance appear relatively benign by comparison.

These measures represent a convergence of anti-Big Tech advocates and conservative groups pushing for minimum age restrictions on internet use. However, this coalition inadvertently advances the interests of surveillance-focused tech companies that already collect extensive user data without meaningful privacy controls. America's last major consumer privacy legislation passed in 1988, highlighting the regulatory gap these proposals fail to address constructively.

The infrastructure created for age verification would inevitably expand beyond its stated purpose. Data collected under these frameworks could later support immigration enforcement activities or discriminatory algorithmic targeting. Tech giants have demonstrated willingness to cooperate with authoritarian measures when profitable.

You cannot protect children from surveillance by mandating universal surveillance. The proposed solutions directly contradict their stated goals while establishing legal precedents that make privacy violations mandatory rather than optional.