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Introducing Age Verification

blog.roblox.com

61–70 of 157 posts

Re: Introducing Age Verification

#61
post #2

Though I applaud the effort to get age right and protect players, I'm not sure I'll ever be comfortable having me or my child scan our photo ID and selfie to upload it as part of a login flow to an application.

I don't think I'd be comfortable with this either, certainly not to play some game. On the other hand, the bizarre problems maintainers of online communities have to deal with are just wild and worth keeping in mind as context:

https://www.wired.com/story/roblox-online-games-irl-fascism-...

Re: Introducing Age Verification

#62
post #2

Though I applaud the effort to get age right and protect players, I'm not sure I'll ever be comfortable having me or my child scan our photo ID and selfie to upload it as part of a login flow to an application.

To be fair, it's not part of their login flow, it's part of their verification flow. It's a one-time thing, not an every-login thing.

I also see no problem with this. What could they realistically use this information for that would be nefarious? It doesn't actually store the ID in any real sense, as they explain in the link, and I see no reason for them to lie about that.

It's real easy to scream, "But My Privacy!!!", and probably a decent amount more difficult to come up with an actual and practical risk there.

Honestly, if your threat model includes "video game companies that lie about age verification systems", I don't think you're taking your security very seriously.

Re: Introducing Age Verification

#63
post #36

> nearly 50% of the users on our platform are over the age of 13 as of Q2 2021 Hahahaha... jeez... /wipes a tear They are in for a surprise of their corporate lives. We have several accounts with them for our kids and I had all of them set with the birthday set to some random year between 1960 and 1990. Because, as every parent knows, any sort of "kids" account comes with random restrictions, needing to create parent…

Haha. Yeah. And if they start verifying identity and locking accounts that can't prove the identity info provided at signup, that's going to be a lot of locked accounts.

I think they're overestimating the importance of a gaming account.

Re: Introducing Age Verification

#64
post #2

Though I applaud the effort to get age right and protect players, I'm not sure I'll ever be comfortable having me or my child scan our photo ID and selfie to upload it as part of a login flow to an application.

[deleted]

Re: Introducing Age Verification

#65
post #32

Where does the need for hard verification of the age come from? My friends and I were using the internet when we were under 13 years old (although not by much), and just clicked the button to confirm that we are older than 13 (mostly on various forums), and later on the same thing with 18 years old verification screens, and we turned out alright (at least from my perspective.)

According to Roblox's S-1 filing, they want to move their customer base up from the current average age of 13. Age verification is for older users, so they can be less restricted. Roblox has a large outsourced "moderation" operation, and is working on an AI system that can bring down the ban hammer in 100ms after saying a bad word. Tencent already does this in China. Tencent owns 49% of Roblox. So the technology is a…

[deleted]

Re: Introducing Age Verification

#66
Use some official eID. They are pretty pervasive across the world and typically it’s just one system per country to intract with like Freja in Norway, BankID in Sweden and so on.

That leaves the bad methods for countries that doesn’t have a good official or de facto standard eID system. But maybe that will create public pressure to adopt one.

Re: Introducing Age Verification

#67
post #2

Though I applaud the effort to get age right and protect players, I'm not sure I'll ever be comfortable having me or my child scan our photo ID and selfie to upload it as part of a login flow to an application.

A component of my work is in digital identity, so I hope you don’t mind the question: what would make you comfortable doing so? For Roblox, I can see the exception taken, but some applications do require this level of identity proofing (scanning your passport in an airline mobile app to book an international flight comes to mind). Edit: Thank you everyone for your feedback, it’s very helpful!

Not OP but there is NO SITUATION where I'd EVER do this for a web site. There are NONE I trust enough for that kind of information and NO web site offers sufficient value to even consider the risk.

Re: Introducing Age Verification

#68
post #32

Where does the need for hard verification of the age come from? My friends and I were using the internet when we were under 13 years old (although not by much), and just clicked the button to confirm that we are older than 13 (mostly on various forums), and later on the same thing with 18 years old verification screens, and we turned out alright (at least from my perspective.)

According to Roblox's S-1 filing, they want to move their customer base up from the current average age of 13. Age verification is for older users, so they can be less restricted. Roblox has a large outsourced "moderation" operation, and is working on an AI system that can bring down the ban hammer in 100ms after saying a bad word. Tencent already does this in China. Tencent owns 49% of Roblox. So the technology is a…

> According to Roblox's S-1 filing, they want to move their customer base up from the current average age of 13.

I'm guessing that's because things like COPPA don't apply to 13+ and identity verification lets them start building accurate PII profiles for children the day they turn 13. What a nasty business.

Re: Introducing Age Verification

#69
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP, but: If at all possible, I would want a hard guarantee that my photo ID and all derived information (e.g. my real name (as in the case of Roblox, they don't care about your identity , just your age )) would be completely deleted as soon as possible, as well as a description of exactly when that would be (e.g. "we have to contact your federal government to verify the authenticity of this ID, and then ensure th…

Unfortunately it seems like "hard guarantee" for most things in tech is almost laughable, and if there is a chance data can be gathered, probably not even worth dreaming about

Which is why "Asking" is an AUTOMATIC "delete the app" or "cancel the web account" or similar.

We weren't born yesterday. :-)

Re: Introducing Age Verification

#70
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but some applications do require this level of identity proofing (scanning your passport in an airline mobile app to book an international flight comes to mind). I never had to do this when booking a flight. The max I had to do was provide my personal info (name, birthday, passport number). If they asked for a passport scan and a selfie I would have noped out.

Kayak asks for ID photos, even for domestic flights.

Never used Kayak but thanks for the tip: I NEVER will use Kayak!
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