Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 371 posts

Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#31

Post by Aurornis »

airstrike wrote: post #21
Aurornis wrote: post #5

> Social media company Discord announced plans in February to roll out mandatory age verification globally, Discord’s age verification is optional and only required to disable the image content filter, join adult servers, and a couple other features. I’m not saying it’s a good decision, but I am getting tired of the repeated claim that it’s mandatory to go do age verification to use the service. This lazy reporting i…

Why, oh why, would you give them the long term benefit of the doubt for literally no gain to you whatsoever?

> for literally no gain to you whatsoever?

I literally gain from using their services for communication and voice chat with friends.

“Literally no gain whatsoever” is completely wrong.

I’ve tried Matrix/Element for years. I’m still in some IRC channels. I know what the alternatives are I can confidently say I’m gaining value from the ease in which Discord allows us to voice chat, screen share, and invite less technical people to join.

Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#32

Post by Aurornis »

john_strinlai wrote: post #30
Aurornis wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay? Then we’ll deal with that if it happens. If it does happen then other services will have the same requirements.

> If it does happen then other services will have the same requirements. that is exactly what everyone is angry about.

And I am too! My comment above was that the claim that Discord’s age verification is mandatory was false.

It’s also misleading in the context of this journalism because it makes it look like it’s already done and therefore new laws wouldn’t change anything.

Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#33

Post by pixl97 »

Aurornis wrote: post #29
john_strinlai wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don’t plan to do the Discord age verification and neither do most of the people I interact with on Discord. until it becomes law, like it is (or in the process of becoming) ~everywhere.

Okay? Then we’ll deal with that if it happens. If it does happen then other services will have the same requirements.

The baby eating machine is busy telling us that it's coming to eat our babies and your best answer is "wait and see"?

Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#34

Post by hunter2_ »

PaulKeeble wrote: post #17
john_strinlai wrote: post #6

> An FTC spokesperson told CNBC that companies must limit how collected information is used. [...] The agency pointed to existing rules requiring firms to retain personal information only as long as reasonably necessary and to safeguard its confidentiality and integrity. the very same rules that have allowed literally every single piece of my data to be leaked several separate times, and now i have free credit monito…

Some of the accounts being blocked from certain access are themselves 18! You would think Reddit would consider that, but nope it doesn't.

Probably because the transfer of accounts (typically for reasons of better spamming, but in this case for adult access) is possible.

However, that makes me wonder what mechanism might "unverify" an account holder's age upon transfer. I suppose it's simply a need to re-verify (take a new photo) upon every login, but then folks could transfer the session cookie to avoid needing the new owner to perform a login (unless a new device ID/fingerprint makes the old cookie useless).

Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#35

Post by Aurornis »

pixl97 wrote: post #33
Aurornis wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay? Then we’ll deal with that if it happens. If it does happen then other services will have the same requirements.

The baby eating machine is busy telling us that it's coming to eat our babies and your best answer is "wait and see"?

No? I’m against age verification too. Please re-read my comment above for why the Discord example with wrong information is counterproductive to arguments against age verification.

It’s important to get facts right.

Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#36

Post by ajsnigrutin »

righthand wrote: post #15
chewbacha wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe! But laws like California’s new law and the Texas law both are making it mandatory from a legal compliance point of view. The direction of these restrictions is not “optional”

It will be when everyone starts leaking from the big players. Age verification will make software development impossible or be impossible to implement without huge investment.

> Age verification will make software development impossible or be impossible to implement without huge investment.

Not really, you'll just be forced to use services from eg google or meta. And pay for them. And share user data.

Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#38

Post by vadelfe »

The uncomfortable part is that they try to solve a real problem (protecting minors) by requiring universal identification. In practice this means every adult has to prove who they are just to access any part of the internet. Once that infrastructure exists, it’s hard to imagine it not expanding beyond its original purpose.

Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#39

Post by Kapura »

no shit, this was obviously the point. the people who said so all along were correct, the people who insisted it wasn't were not speaking in good faith.

we, as a society, need to stop taking companies at their word when they say that the obvious harms that are right around the corner are overblown.

Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#40

Post by soulofmischief »

hunter2_ wrote: post #34
PaulKeeble wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of the accounts being blocked from certain access are themselves 18! You would think Reddit would consider that, but nope it doesn't.

Probably because the transfer of accounts (typically for reasons of better spamming, but in this case for adult access) is possible. However, that makes me wonder what mechanism might "unverify" an account holder's age upon transfer. I suppose it's simply a need to re-verify (take a new photo) upon every login, but then folks could transfer the session cookie to avoid needing the new owner to perform a login (unless…

10 years was enough for Tom Fulp.

https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1549829/1

https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1555753/1

Post reply on HN