Comment by jonplackett
15 days ago
I think Apple / Google need to implement verification on the device - we already accept the device knows who we are.
And then social media platforms should be able to have the device confirm the user is over 18 and that’s all they need to know.
This only applies if you take all those "protect the children" initiatives at face value. It seems to me that the actual reasons are different. Governments want to police speech online and be able to arrest people who say things they don't approve of, so they are pushing platforms to collect user's PID. Some also want to discourage people from doing things they don't want them to do but that are politically unfeasible to criminalize (watching videos of consenting adults engaging in all kinds of sexual acts) and adding more and more friction to the process (no pun intended!) is the best thing they can get. And the internet companies want more of your data to track you.
Yeah I 100% agree - but if you give them an alternative way to do the same thing without everyone having to get IDed - then I’d they still want that they’ll have to come out and be explicit.
Like the UK, where you can tweet that someone should burn down a hotel full of migrants, and you can be arrested for tweeting that.
Or like Russia, where you can tweet that you don't like the president, and you can be arrested for tweeting that?
> someone should burn down a hotel full of migrants
> you don't like the president
One of these things is not like the other. In the second case, it's expressing disagreement with a political figure that has directed multiple mass murders of vulnerable people.
But in the first, it's promoting the mass murder of vulnerable people. Free speech isn't freedom to promote hate crimes.
> Like the UK, where you can tweet that someone should burn down a hotel full of migrants, and you can be arrested for tweeting that.
During the middle of a riot where people were actively trying to set fire to a hotel full of migrants.
Do you think someone should be arrested for encouraging the burning down of a hotel full of people in real life? If so, why should it be different online? If not, well then you have more serious problems.
4 replies →
Like both, of course!
When you build a panopticon for some group you perceive as "good guys" to use keep in mind that eventually it will be controlled by "bad guys".
8 replies →
Look up how people were prosecuted in the US during the 1950s and onwards for having "communist sympathies" or being against racism.
That would either mean you can tell the device to lie (which makes it useless), or that you don't own the device you use (which makes it unacceptable).
The thing is though - only KIDS need to not own their device. With parents overseeing it.
Why do we even need to age check adults?
> or that you don't own the device you use (which makes it unacceptable)
It's already like this, unless you go out of your way to install a custom Android rom, which 99.9% of people will never do.
I agree it is unacceptable.
Apple already has this https://developer.apple.com/documentation/declaredagerange/ I saw Claude app request it the other day.
Apple actually has this already. For countries that support IDs in Apple Wallet there is a "Verify with Wallet API" [1] and for other countries the app developer can get the age range from the iCloud Account [2] - but that is not verified with any legal authority and only based on user input.
1) https://developer.apple.com/wallet/get-started-with-verify-w... 2) https://developer.apple.com/documentation/declaredagerange/
At this point might as well...
There is a news story every 12 minutes for a company that leaked IDs
I really think on device verification is the way to go - and I don’t even see why we need to use ID.
Parents are always in control of a kids device. Just mandate devices have a child mode that parents can activate and have it send a ‘this is a child’ flag to all websites and apps.
But this assumes this isn’t all about ID checking everyone online, which is what it’s really about.
I have my Gmail account since they were on invitations, circa 2004, and Google certainly knows this. That's the ultimate proof I'm an adult :-) That information could be exposed and used by 3rd parties.
Happily walking right down the path they are leading us down...
A world where nothing can be accessed except through a Google or Apple hardware-attested, photo ID verified device
How would that work on a PC? Not everyone uses Discord on their phone/tablet.
jumping from the frying pan straight into the fire.
why on earth would you give Google or Apple more attestation power and control.