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Discord's face scanning age checks 'start of a bigger shift'

bbc.com

21–30 of 448 posts

Re: Discord's face scanning age checks 'start of a bigger shift'

#21

I suspect the endgame of this campaign is to have mandatory ID checks for social media. Police would have access to these upon court orders etc and be able to easily prosecute anyone who posts 'harmful' content online.

Which would kill social media. The cherry-picked tech giant iterations anyway.

I don't think it would kill social media, but it'd make it more similar to Chinese social media. Essentially impossible to use for protests or criticism of things the government doesn't critiques on.

Re: Discord's face scanning age checks 'start of a bigger shift'

#22
post #2

Aside from the privacy nightmare, what about someone who is 18 and just doesn't have the traditional adult facial features? Same thing for someone who's 15 and hit puberty early? I can imagine that on the edges, it becomes really hard to discern. If they get it wrong, are you locked out? Do you have to send an image of your ID? So many questions. Not a huge fan of these recent UK changes (looking at the Apple E2E sit…

Didn't Australia ban porn with women who have A cups under the justification of pedos like them?

Edit: This isn't how it played out. See the comment below.

Re: Discord's face scanning age checks 'start of a bigger shift'

#23

I suspect the endgame of this campaign is to have mandatory ID checks for social media. Police would have access to these upon court orders etc and be able to easily prosecute anyone who posts 'harmful' content online.

See e.g. "Ohio social media parental notification act"

(mind you, ID/age requirements for access to adult content go way, way back in all countries)

Re: Discord's face scanning age checks 'start of a bigger shift'

#25
post #2

Aside from the privacy nightmare, what about someone who is 18 and just doesn't have the traditional adult facial features? Same thing for someone who's 15 and hit puberty early? I can imagine that on the edges, it becomes really hard to discern. If they get it wrong, are you locked out? Do you have to send an image of your ID? So many questions. Not a huge fan of these recent UK changes (looking at the Apple E2E sit…

It's a good thing to think about. I knew a guy in high school who had male pattern baldness that started at 13 or 14. Full blown by the time he was 16. Dude looked like one of the teachers.

Re: Discord's face scanning age checks 'start of a bigger shift'

#26
I see a lot of comments here arguing age requirements are overreach and these decisions should be left to the parents. To those presenting such arguments, do you think that applies to other activities as well? What about smoking/drinking/firearms? Pornography? Driving?

I haven't researched the topic of social media's effect on young people, but the common sentiment I encounter is that it's generally harmful, or at least capable of harm in a way that is difficult to isolate and manage as a parent.

The people closest to this issue, that is parents, school faculty, and those who study the psychology and health of children/teens, seem to be the most alarmed about the effects of social media.

If that's true, I can understand the need to, as a society, agree we would like to implement some barrier between kids/teens and the social media companies. How that is practically done seems to be the challenge. Clicking a box that say's, in effect, "I totally promise I am old enough." is completely useless for anything other than a thin legal shield.

Re: Discord's face scanning age checks 'start of a bigger shift'

#27
post #4
post #2

Aside from the privacy nightmare, what about someone who is 18 and just doesn't have the traditional adult facial features? Same thing for someone who's 15 and hit puberty early? I can imagine that on the edges, it becomes really hard to discern. If they get it wrong, are you locked out? Do you have to send an image of your ID? So many questions. Not a huge fan of these recent UK changes (looking at the Apple E2E sit…

Also, key point in the framing, when was it decided that Discord supposed to be the one enforcing this? A pop-up saying "you really should be 18+" is one thing, but this sounds like a genuine effort to lock out young people. Neither Discord nor a government ratings agency should be taking final responsibility for how children get bought up, that seems like something parents should be responsible for. This is over-rea…

It almost certainly is overreach, but locking young people out of porn is hardly a new concern. We have variants of this argument continuously for decades. I'm not sure there is a definitive answer.

Re: Discord's face scanning age checks 'start of a bigger shift'

#28
post #26

I see a lot of comments here arguing age requirements are overreach and these decisions should be left to the parents. To those presenting such arguments, do you think that applies to other activities as well? What about smoking/drinking/firearms? Pornography? Driving? I haven't researched the topic of social media's effect on young people, but the common sentiment I encounter is that it's generally harmful, or at le…

The difference is that requiring ID for those activities doesn't generally drastically erode the privacy of other people.

Instead of destroying the concept of privacy and anonymity on the Internet... how about we just stop these companies from being as harmful as they are, regardless of your age?

Re: Discord's face scanning age checks 'start of a bigger shift'

#29

I think regulation could be done better... Let's assign one or ideally two adults to each underage child, who are aware of the childs real age and can intervene and prevent the child from installing discord (and any other social media) in the first place or confiscate the equipment if the child breaks the rules. They could also regulate many other thing in the childs life, not just social network use.

> confiscate the equipment if the child breaks the rules.

Even you acknowledge this plan is flawed and that the child can break the rules. And it's not that difficult. After all, confiscating the equipment assumes that they know about the equipment and that they can legally seize the equipment. Third parties are involved, and doing what you suggests would land these adults in prison.

I know you thought you were being smart with your suggestion that maybe parents should be parents, but really you just highlighted your ignorance.

The goal of these laws are to prevent children from accessing content. If some adults get caught in the crossfire, they don't care.

Now, I'm not defending these laws or saying anything about them. What I am saying is that your "suggestion" is flawed from the point of view of those proposing these laws.

Re: Discord's face scanning age checks 'start of a bigger shift'

#30
post #6
post #2

Aside from the privacy nightmare, what about someone who is 18 and just doesn't have the traditional adult facial features? Same thing for someone who's 15 and hit puberty early? I can imagine that on the edges, it becomes really hard to discern. If they get it wrong, are you locked out? Do you have to send an image of your ID? So many questions. Not a huge fan of these recent UK changes (looking at the Apple E2E sit…

It's not even edge cases - I was a pretty young looking woman and was mistaken for a minor until I was about 24-25. My mother had her first child (me) at 27 and tells me about how she and my father would get dirty looks because they assumed he was some dirty old man that had impregnated a teenager. (He was 3 years older than her). I think, ironically, the best way to fight this would be to lean on identity politics:…

I had a colleague, that when going out with her boyfriend, police was called on him as someone believed he is a pedophile.

She was 26. She just was that young looking.

:/

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