According to a draft of the proposed regulation seen by Computer Weekly, the proposals extend beyond social media companies. Video-sharing services, online games, chatbots and app stores will also be required to follow “safety by design” requirements, including verifying the age of users.
The draft has raised concerns among some critics that it would lead to the widespread use of “identity checkpoints” on internet services to verify people’s ages, changing the “open nature” of online services.
True, tech bros lobbied the European commission to implement this dystopian 1984-style shit in order to get even more data to train their AIs.
This isn’t about protecting the children. That’s just an excuse to further promote mass surveillance and to exempt companies from responsibility for the additive design of their products and services.
This only serves to favour large corporations. It’s easier and more rewarding to penalize the users and smaller businesses.
Furthermore this will make all game servers that do not collect users’ personal data illegal in the EU, including discontinued and community-run ones, even if authorized by the publisher.