[lotsofpulp]

The government is not saying yea or nay, they are just providing proof of age or identity (not necessarily both, whatever the vendor website asks for, and the person allows).

Suppose I want to start a business where I don’t want the liability of having to deal with all the laws about minors. Then I can use the government API to only allow people over whatever age.

[stvltvs]

That's the intent of course, but it's just as easy to refuse to verify age for certain endpoints or provide incorrect verification. I'm trying to think how an authoritarian government would use this.

[lotsofpulp]

Any government can become authoritarian and start messing things up anytime. It’s not like identity/age verification API is cutting edge technology, any group in power that wants to use can use it now or anytime in the future.

That is not a reason for the government to not do something. We entrust them with nuclear weapons and aircraft carriers. Not to mention Snowden already proved the government has back doors into all the big tech companies, so it’s already not a secret who is visiting what website. And FISA courts and secret warrants under gag order and blah blah.

It’s just inconvenient for everyone.