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Alfred's Serif Users' Forums → General Discussion → Age Verification on Discord
A link to the following article was shared on CreoFora yesterday:
Discord's Age Verification System is a Relentless Attack on Privacy
I have already validated my age on another site this way:
Submit a video selfie for facial age estimation
I am very much of the opinion that it is important for the Internet to get a handle on who is able to access what. I think we all recognise that certain aspects of the Internet can be damaging, particularly to minors, and that sites should be responsible for controlling it. We can't have our cake and eat it.
"Submit a video selfie for facial age estimation"
What if you submit someone else's face?
"Submit a video selfie for facial age estimation"
What if you submit someone else's face?
Quite so, Eric! Even without someone else’s cooperation you could spoof your identity with the aid of makeup or a mask.
Or I could use your Alfred avatar but you are ageless !!
"Submit a video selfie for facial age estimation"
What if you submit someone else's face?
The wording is misleading: it's a live look at you using either the phone or laptop camera, similar to when you set up a device for facial recognition.
The issue about using someone else's face would be the same if you were asked for documentary ID, but they have to start somewhere. Something is better than nothing.
ericlnz wrote:"Submit a video selfie for facial age estimation"
What if you submit someone else's face?
The wording is misleading: it's a live look at you using either the phone or laptop camera, similar to when you set up a device for facial recognition.
I don’t feel misled by the wording, Ali! I think Eric is simply saying that it’s possible to point the camera at someone (or video footage of someone) purporting to be you. In order to perform proper verification you would have to involve a third party to confirm that the person shown in the video is the person it’s claimed to be, in much the same way as a photo submitted for a passport or a driving licence has to be countersigned to confirm that it displays a true likeness of the applicant.
This isn't a passport application, though. It's a step in the right direction: there will be flaws in any new system, but it takes time to find something that's as foolproof as it can be.
Instead of saying, "Well, some people will be able to fool this" (there will always be people who will want to get round the rules), I prefer to say, "Great - at last they are starting to address the issue."
I suppose it depends on whether you are a glass half full or a glass half empty person, and of course, it's all too easy to sit in your armchair and criticise from afar.
Since I have no desire to use Discord it doesn’t affect me personally, but I agree it’s good that they’re starting to address the issue at long last.
It will affect you, Alfred - this is going to have to be rolled out across pretty much every platform on the Internet if we are to keep our young people safe. It's just the tip of the iceberg.
Yes, of course! I thought it was clear that I was referring specifically to the age verification system announced by Discord.
Don't parents have some responsibility for what their children access on line?
Perhaps a better solution would be for computer makers, or software producers, making it possible for some "child safe" computers to be available where only pre-approved internet sites are able to be accessed. The approval system would be password protected and only be accessible to the parent.
According to Copilot's response to my asking "is it possible to restrict internet access on a particular computer only to sites pre-approved" that is already possible.
Parental control is already possible, and many parents still do use it, but it's a bit like Pandora's box, mainly because of smart phones. Even the most vigilant of parents can get caught out these days. Parenting in this respect is nowhere near as easy as it was with Internet access pretty much ubiquitous. It's something that requires more than parental control: schools and those offering online content have to take responsibility, too.
The average teenager is more tech savvy than the average parent, and will most likely know how to outwit them. We are living in a very different world these days.
It will affect you, Alfred - this is going to have to be rolled out across pretty much every platform on the Internet if we are to keep our young people safe. It's just the tip of the iceberg.
This isn't true by a very long way. This is a UK law and only works for UK based companies with UK based servers. The rest of the world, the other 192 countries, are ignoring it. Anyone with a VPN or a Tor Browser https://www.torproject.org/ can get round it.
We did some tests trying to access a site with UK age verification on it via Firefox, a VPN and Tor, side by side on the same computer based in the UK. Only the vanilla Firefox session was asked for age verification. When the requirements came recently into force in the UK primarily to stop minors accessing porn it was noted that logins to non UK sites rocketed as much as ones to the main UK sites fell. So the main reason for having this ill-conceived system fell at the first hurdle. Before someone asks why I was trying to get round verification on porn sites: I was a founder member of this https://iotsecurityfoundation.org/ and I have been in internet security of sorts since 1990. So several of us did some tests and various groups are discussing how effective it is.
The EU will probably mandate something more effective, but then they have the clout to do it. The problem is the genie is out of the bottle (actually since the Eternal September). It is down to parents to secure their children's devices, not anyone else.
Alfred's Serif Users' Forums → General Discussion → Age Verification on Discord
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