States across the U.S. and even other countries are moving to attempt to safeguard data privacy and children's online safety. These legislative solutions are highlighting the inherent contradictory nature of trying to centrally protect data.
While both individual data privacy as well as safeguarding children online are good things, the legislative impulse to act without considering unintended consequences ought to be resisted. Looking at real world examples, such as the U.K.'s sweeping digital privacy law, exposes that these legal requirements produce one of two outcomes: either the law is so sweeping and draconian that individuals must forfeit their identification data to the government, who then aggregates it on servers (often foreign) that create new security risks, or the requirements or so easy to bypass that children and users end up avoiding the law altogether, making it a pain for web and service providers with no benefits added.
You can read my full analysis, with real world examples, in my latest op-ed in The Center Square.
