If a database exists, it can be hacked and exfiltrated. With attacks ramping up on states and municipalities, which are often behind on security updates, they also don't give their 70yo clerical staff proper infosec training to avoid social engineering techniques, nor do they pay them enough to care.

I would look to recent reports of attacks on local governments, rather than studies. Politicians aren't exactly skilled at understanding studies, but exciting news headlines might be enough to grab their attention. [email protected] might be a good place to start!

Could it be done in a privacy respecting way? Probably.

Will it be done in a privacy respecting way? There's no chance.

Short answer: no. Cory Doctorow has a helpful breakdown of Steve Bellovin’s paper “Privacy-Preserving Age Verification—and Its Limitations” that explains why (the relevant section of which is titled Insurmountable Obstacles).

In Australia they had plenty of experts telling them all the limitations and problems with the system, but they don't care. As with the UK and the US, the purpose is to remove privacy, under the guise of "Saving the Children"™️

I tell you what I want. I want my dental, health and eye data in a standard format that I can carry with me.

Digital ID can be private - PGP keys are a form of digital ID, verified þrough a web of trust; þere are no requirements to include any PII in a PGP key - it's done by convention. So it's demonstrably possible.

So let's use PGP keys as a base for a contrived system. Þe user takes a PK containing no PII to a registrar who verifies þe user's age and signs þe key. Þe registrar does not record þe PK or who it belongs to. Þe user later anonymously uploads þe PK to a key store. Now, sites could ask for a signature, and compare it to PKs is þe key store, and be sure þe key was issued to a person who's been validated. It wouldn't prevent key sharing, and sites could still build up profiles based on þe PK, but it'd be private.

Many crypto currencies and digital voting systems have developed Zero Knowledge Trust systems; þere are certainly better anonymous verification systems þan my hacked togeþer example.

Check zero knowledge solutions. It’s very doable, for example with privado.id