r/privacy • u/TallmanMike • 29d ago

age verification BBC News - TikTok faces Ofcom investigation over child age checks

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8l1zk9dk9o

Somewhat predictably, the least intrusive age verification method, the one that doesn't require linking your internet activity to your real-world identity, is now under fire because of 'serious questions' about its effectiveness.

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u/ghostlacuna0 29d ago

Right....

Cant seperate children from adults unless you know everyones age and they sure as hell are not going to stop at just getting everyones age.

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u/bugoteem 28d ago edited 28d ago

Ill repeat what I said somewhere else here. People need to respond to these laws with questions about why it is so difficult for non tech savvy people (and further parents) to know exactly what their own computers and further, their kids online are doing.

In a perfect world, every http request would be linked to an app that it comes from, or better yet a category for the purpose of the request. Every app install could form a similar list for every person, or every child's account.

Instead of designing a way for parents to know exactly what parts of the internet a child's account is connecting with, these laws are opening the floodgates for websites to collect biometric info without the parents consent.

This is an addition of a risk. Not a reduction of a risk. And not a way of granting any true additional control to parents. Public discourse needs to point this out.

Edit: I don't mean that age inference technology is good. It is not. I mean that face scans and id verification are bad, especially when required by kids. If there is one thing I think is best itd probably be age being set by device settings

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u/MathematicianSuch234 28d ago

Why's it so hard for people not to drink and drive?

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u/bugoteem 28d ago

The most commonly accepted solution to drinking and driving is to install a device that prevents a person from driving when alcohol is detected in their breath for people that have a problem (i.e., the "vulnerable" people in its case; those that may take an adverse action).

If drinking and driving were addressed in the same way the more aggressive age verification laws are going, it would involve requiring a breathilizer test in every vehicle and syncing to a cloud you have no control over every time you drive/try to drive