Nairobi, Aug. 17 -- Kenya is right to demand strong protection for children online. But there is a dangerous way to achieve it: make every user reveal who they are to prove how old they are.

That would turn child protection into identity infrastructure. Age assurance is becoming one of the hardest problems in digital governance. Platforms need reliable ways to distinguish adults from children when access to pornography, gambling or other age-restricted services is at stake.

Obvious solutions like uploading a national ID, submitting a selfie, scanning a passport or consulting identity databases can create new stores of sensitive information and targets for attackers.

The policy question should, therefore, change. How little identity mus...