There are several major concerns with Bill S‑210. I mentioned some in the opening with respect to mandated blocking of content and getting Internet providers to block that as well. I think that raises serious issues. For the use of age verification technologies, we've seen privacy commissioners around the world raise real concerns about this issue. I must admit that I find it both problematic and deeply puzzling that we would rush ahead with a piece of legislation when our own Privacy Commissioner is still studying the implications of using age verification technologies.
What we know is that the technology right now either requires the provision of highly sensitive personal information—uploading government-issued identification documents to services outside the country, by and large, which raises issues around identity theft—or is based on technology that tries to guesstimate your age, which simply doesn't work in legislation that is designed to distinguish between someone who is 17 and 18. Just go into any high school or first-year university class and try to determine who's 17, who's 18 and who's 19. If we can't do it as individuals, are we really going to trust some sort of algorithm to make that determination?