The Digital Economy Act of 2017 in the UK is trying to put up enforceable age gates to pornography. That might be a good idea but it's extremely difficult to actual do online. In fact, these efforts might be creating a monopoly on age verification identity in the UK with significant consequences.

At the same time, here in Canada, our major financial players are launching a joint identity service. With no clear problem to solve, this effort is attempting to centralize financial identities for Canadian with unknown repercussions.

Connect both of these issues together and the larger issue emerges: should anyone own digital identity? Do you have just one identity or is it fractional online? What role—if any—do social media companies play?

Lots of questions, very few answers but discussion is sorely needed.

References;

• John Hermann for the New York Times on the UK's porn age verification efforts, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/03/style/britain-age-porn-law.html?searchResultPosition=1
• David Paddon for CBC News on the Canadian financial industries efforts around identity, https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-big-banks-launch-verified-me-network-data-identify-theft-1.5118471
• an actual use for Blockchain vs all the 💩, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ID2020