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. […]
I don’t care if it slows down the legislative process, I am firmly of the opinion that all politicians should be legally required to take a short exam designed by experts on the topic of any legislation they want to vote on (including things like basic understandings of the concept and potential consequences, both positive and negative, of the legislation), and any politician who fails isn’t allowed to vote on that legislation.
Politicians shouldn’t be allowed to vote on legislation that they demonstrably do not understand.
I’ll take it one step further.
Every second of every politicians life should be publicly available and steamed 24/7 excepting matters of national security.
If they want the kind of power that comes with being a politician then they should have to sacrifice their privacy. If they are public servants they need to be held accountable and serve the public.
I sincerely believe that extreme personal sacrifice for politicians should become the norm, and the only way for us to have a healthy thriving democracy.
The same way you sacrifice many rights when joining the military, or on being incarcerated. Service requires sacrifice. And the notion that politicians should be able to enjoy the same rights and freedoms as the rest of us is a huge part of why corruption can flourish.
That is an utterly terrible idea, that is going to lead to the very opposite of a healthy or thriving democracy. That is going to lead to 99% of politicians quiting, and the very, very few who don’t care about the constant surveillance will effectively be governing unopposed most of the time.
It’s also a humongous waste of tax payer money, it would cost hundreds of millions a year to host hundreds of 24/7 life streams.
Also, what about politicians who have children ? You wanna publicly livestream them bathing, or dressing their underage children ? Or do you just want to ban parents from being politicians all together ?
No offense, but sounds like the type of idea you come up with and that feels really clever when you’re high AF, and then falls apart as soon as you spend more than 5 seconds sober thinking about it. Like circular runways.
How i feel about voting in general
You have to answer a skill testing question to obtain any contest winnings, there should be one for your vote to count.
There Is a reason why we don’t have literacy tests for voting anymore.
A skill testing question isn’t quite the same as a literacy test, but I get your point.