New Year’s Message / From the Vault: Age Verification

About this episode

Corbin Barthold reflects on the moral panic surrounding children's use of social media and AI, followed by a discussion with Prof. Eric Goldman on age verification and child safety online.

Host Corbin Barthold offers some end-of-year reflections on the moral panic over kids’ use of social media and AI. Then we revisit Episode 405 (“No, Internet Age Verification Has Not Been ‘Solved’,” Apr. 30, 2025), in which Prof. Eric Goldman discusses his paper “The ‘Segregate-and-Suppress’ Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online.” Links: This Country Banned Social Media for Young Teens. Here’s how They’re Defying It. (https://tinyurl.com/y2t8sj6y) Australia’s Social Media Ban Goes Into Effect as Pretty Much Everyone Realizes It’s a Total Mess (https://tinyurl.com/3znvf24m) The “Segregate-and-Suppress” Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online (https://tinyurl.com/ymdxn2kc) Tech Policy Podcast 417: Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton Is Wreaking Havoc (https://tinyurl.com/mwdh2mvb)

People in this episode

Host: Corbin Barthold

Guest: Prof. Eric Goldman

Topics covered

• social media
• AI
• child safety online
• age verification
• moral panic

Keywords

• social media
• AI
• child safety
• age verification
• moral panic
• regulation

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The ‘Segregate-and-Suppress’ Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online, No, Internet Age Verification Has Not Been ‘Solved’

Places: Australia

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