Now How Are We Supposed To Solve This?

Here is an interesting anecdote I heard yesterday (identity of person withheld for their own protection):

My tween daughter was entering some sort of online popularity contest. It involved registering yourself as a contestant online with your email address, and then verifying your entry by clicking on a link in a verification email you would receive. I saw my daughter on the site for what I thought was much longer than needed, and then noticed her furiously logging in and out of multiple email accounts.

“How many email accounts do you have?” I asked.

“Oh, I only have 2, but these are the email accounts of my friends. I’m registering them and then confirming their entry for them”.

“Your friends gave you the password for their email accounts?” I asked, horrified.

“Oh yeah! Some of them haven’t used their email in years. We’re all on facebook”.

The implications of this kind of behavior from the future citizens of the web is staggering, to say the least.