I really do think age verification should be at the device level, not per app or website. Parents can and should lock down their children's devices. I know device manufacturers don't want to take on that legal burden, but the tech is _right there!_
The Age Verification Trap: Verifying age undermines everyone's data protection
791–800 of 1001 posts
Re: The Age Verification Trap: Verifying age undermines everyone's data protection
#792Defending the free internet nowadays means defending these sv criminals.
Re: The Age Verification Trap: Verifying age undermines everyone's data protection
#793"The only way to prove that someone is old enough to use a site is to collect personal data about who they are."
This is not true, as others have pointed out. Kind of sad to see no mention of privacy-preserving technology already in use in an IEEE article.
Re: The Age Verification Trap: Verifying age undermines everyone's data protection
#794There are alternatives to ID verification if the goal is protecting children. You could, for example, make it illegal to target children with targeted advertising campaigns and addictive content. Then throw the executives who authorized such programs in jail. Punish the people causing the harm.
How about instead of protecting the kids we protect everyone and do something to stop these gargantuan companies from driving engagement at any cost in order to rake ad revenue.
I’ve never met a single person who believed Facebook was a force for good. Why allow it to exist in its current form at all.
If these companies are the new town square then make a real online town square run by the government people can use if they so choose and then break up the monopolies that are destroying the fabric of all the societies on the globe.
We never in a million years should have allowed these companies to establish global scale communications platforms without the ability to properly moderate them with human intervention and that’s not even to speak of the actual nefarious intent they possess to drive engagement and the anti democratic techno feudalist sickening shit we see from their CEOs like Thiel et al.
They are a plague on our species that makes sport betting apps look like childs play.
Re: The Age Verification Trap: Verifying age undermines everyone's data protection
#795Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's funny, all the bible wankers screamed about "the mark of the beast" over things like RealID. Now we have fascists setting up surveillance and censorship tools to tie speech and movement to centralized ID...and they're lining up to lick boots. You should need to show ID and prove you're over 18 to enter a church. At least we know they're actually harmful to children.
The people pushing this are the same ones who are always screaming about "fascists". Also, your ideas in your post are anti-liberal and anti-constitutional (in the US).
A strict reading of the constitution would also imply that limiting gun ownership to those who show ID and can prove they are 18 is unconstitutional. "Anti-liberal" and "anti-constitutional" are in the eye of the beholder.
Re: The Age Verification Trap: Verifying age undermines everyone's data protection
#796[dead]
Re: The Age Verification Trap: Verifying age undermines everyone's data protection
#797We'll try everything, it seems, other than holding parents accountable for what their children consume. In the United States, you can get in trouble if you recklessly leave around or provide alcohol/guns/cigarettes for a minor to start using, yet somehow, the same social responsibility seems thrown out the window for parents and the web. Yes, children are clever - I was one once. If you want to actually protect child…
The richest brightest minds of our generation all being motivated towards one addictive goal, and we'll just put the responsibility on the parents...I think society can collectively do better.
Re: The Age Verification Trap: Verifying age undermines everyone's data protection
#798It's amazing how much it's possible to foment arguments against something if you are very well funded and a regulation will cost your industry a lot of money. Age verification is a good thing. Giving children unrestricted access to hardcore pornography is bad for them . Whatever arguments you want to make, fundamentally this is true.
Age verification is fundamentally harmful and is an attack on user privacy. Age verification is being heavily lobbied for by tech companies that are hoping to get rich off of violating your privacy.
Anonymous age verification is fundamentally impossible. It is especially a bad idea for adult content, as a person's perfectly legal sexual beliefs and fantasies can permanently destroy their lives if that information got out. Parental controls are the only ethical, secure, and privacy protecting way forward here.
Re: The Age Verification Trap: Verifying age undermines everyone's data protection
#799There are alternatives to ID verification if the goal is protecting children. You could, for example, make it illegal to target children with targeted advertising campaigns and addictive content. Then throw the executives who authorized such programs in jail. Punish the people causing the harm.
It isn't about the kids, they are just the smoke and mirrors.
Re: The Age Verification Trap: Verifying age undermines everyone's data protection
#800We'll try everything, it seems, other than holding parents accountable for what their children consume. In the United States, you can get in trouble if you recklessly leave around or provide alcohol/guns/cigarettes for a minor to start using, yet somehow, the same social responsibility seems thrown out the window for parents and the web. Yes, children are clever - I was one once. If you want to actually protect child…
> then give parents strong monitoring and restriction tools and empower them to protect their children
I think this is the right way to solve the problem.
For example, I think websites should have a header or something that indicates a recommended age level, and what kinds of more mature content and interactions it has, so that filters can use that without having to use heuristics.