Tech should adapt to the needs of society

British Prime minister Keir Starmer resigned today.

I did not like his simple legalistic authoritarianism. Digital ID is a ridiculous idea that will bring more problems, crime and injustice than it ever solves. But I can't help feeling genuinely sad. His unpopularity is a mystery. He's the first prime minister in my lifetime who hasn't crashed the economy, started a war or been at the center of some sordid scandal.

Many say that he failed to have any positive philosophy. We disagree here at The Cyber Show.

Perhaps his greatest display of character was just holding steady in the face of how bloody awful and bitchy British politics is. He was also one of the few qualified politicians in a game that is increasingly filled with chancers, frauds and wannabes. He did not "play at being" prime minister, like US figureheads, he was a real prime minister.

Not dragging us into another pointless war to prosecute the oil interests of dying US businesses…again… that was nice. But most of all Keir thank you for what you did advancing child safety online. Thank you for having the courage to face Big Tech and set some boundaries.

This remains a difficult problem.

The implementation however - of age-gating Internet access - is a total disaster and will fail spectacularly for any of thirty or forty reasons any competent advisor should have surmised.

There are many other better ways. But they need even more courage.

Your successor will inherit the joy of figuring-out that mess while trashing the education and opportunities of all Britain's young people and creating a backlash that plays straight into the hands of US Big Tech by making the issue about freedom instead of harms. Age control is punishing the victims instead of going after the abusers.

When you've finished removing the knives from your back Keir Starmer, know this one line will be your totally awesome legacy to be proud of:

"Tech should adapt to the needs of society. Not the other way around" – Sir Keir Starmer

We could not agree more ¹. It precisely echoes the words of Pope Leo XIV and is timely and on the money.

I am not aware that any other prime minister in history has taken on the issue of technology and society with such clear words.

Now we have to start figuring out how to do that. A first step must be bringing the tech oligarchy right down to size and working with Europe for digital sovereignty based on Free Open Source Software.

Dumping the dumb idea of trying to segment information access (and therefore culture, education , health and every other aspect of society) by age would be the first smart move. The second would be throwing foreign spy networks out of our nation's systems.

What happens After Social Media?