Age Verification Wants Your Face, and Your Privacy

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Hi Everyone!

Today’s article is about a growing problem in privacy:

The multiplication of laws and law propositions forcing platforms to implement age verification measures, and therefore collecting sensitive identification data from everyone using them.

This isn’t hypothetical or far away in the future.

Unfortunately, some platforms have already started to require users verify their age using face scans or uploading official IDs.

If you have experienced such age verification requests already, share your experience with us!

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I find it very easy to imagine a hypothetical privacy-respecting digital state ID. When your government gives you your state ID card, they would also give you a hardware key. This hardware key contains all the same information as your state ID. But because it’s a piece of smart technology, we can control what information it shares. So when an adult website wants to know whether you’re over 18 years old, instead of asking you for all the information on your ID card, it can simply ask for your age – or better yet, simply ask if your birthday is prior to 18 years ago. A simple permission system would allow you to keep websites honest: any data request they make would need to be approved by you (via a GUI app or hardware button).

These could have expiration dates just like state IDs. The only major degradation in comparison to traditional ID cards is the lack of face matching to prove the ID is in fact yours. Replacing that with a password is a simple, but inferior security system. Alternatively, a government-issued offline facial recognition app could perform the face check, then temporarily authorize the hardware key (say for 15 minutes).

Obviously this would require substantial work, but this isn’t science fiction. We could have this today if governments and developers put the work in.

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In the meantime, don’t be surprised if you cross a teenager on the street suddenly pointing their phone to scan your adult face, or a young relative looking in your wallet. They probably won’t be looking for your money, but most likely for your adult ID.

This isn’t far off:

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Hahaha, yes exactly :joy:

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Seems like people are forgetting the elephant in the room

The f***** fact that Meta is legally allowing 10 year olds in their VR headset. Dystopian

Technically those do not have to scan their Faces because well it’s within Meta’s ToS.

This world is Doomed, and it’s a shame I very much lost interest in VR (I guess until Valve comes back with a banger that we desperately need)

People are not gonna believe me I guess so here:

Now yes this is with a preteen account but it’s already disgusting and there’s so many ways kids are bypassing this, such as using the parent account or lying about their age instead or idk:

the fact that it is not at all safe for kids: Changes to Visual Parameters Following Virtual Reality Gameplay - PMC

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I disagree here. Aside from basic parental controls that parents can configure manually, I don’t want Meta to validate if users are a certain age. I’d rather not hand over children’s information to them even if they pinky promised it’s anonymized.

Parents should have freedom in choosing risks for their freedom (not to go off topic, my opinion is that the freedom ends when the risk of harm expands to others). EDIT: such freedoms also mean parents are responsible, so yeah with great responsibility comes costs, and bad parents will choose things irregardless of the welfare of their children.

I’d argue slapping an iPad in front of a babies face 24/7 is worse than this, but I can’t say unsupervised VR time is also anywhere near good.

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Well that is Meta declaring that they’re allowing kids ages 10 to 12, and the point of the study is to show that regardless this is not good for kids.

Yes all together this should not be a thing but meta is allowing this to flourish.

and again not mentioning the other elephant in the room which is the bypassing these kids do.

Remember some kid could be smarter than you think at any moment or not, but at that.

We wouldn’t be complaining about Gorilla Tag and VRChat child infestation if this was resolved that easily, Meta only made it worse than better here. (again they’re literally signalling that they’re allowing 10 to 12 years old to use a vr headset and who knows how, I wish the best for parents that are actually responsible but at that.)

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It’s definitely weird to have them explicitly mention age, as though they are giving a green light on it. I bet in their 1000 page ToS it will “excuse” them from all liability.

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Tbh meta is trying to play it safe by saying you have to be 13 to create an account but you could create an account for your 10 to 12 years old

1.1. Accounts. We want our platform to be as open and inclusive as possible, but we also want it to be safe, secure, and in accordance with the law. So, we need you to agree to a few requirements before you can create an account to use our MPT Products:

1.1.a. You must be at least 13 years of age to create one or more accounts supported by a MPT Product, such as a Meta account. You may create a Meta account on behalf of your child ages 10 to 12. When your child turns 13, they will have 30 days to start managing their Meta account or they will be blocked from using their device. Meta accounts for children ages 10 to 12 may not be supported on all MPT Products, including Meta Wearable Products.

1.1.b. You cannot create a Meta account if you are a convicted sex offender, if we have previously disabled your account for violations of the Meta Terms of Service, these Supplemental Terms, or other terms or policies that apply to your use of MPT Products, or if you are prohibited from receiving our products, services, or software under applicable laws.

1.1.c. You may use the same Meta account to access different MPT Products, or you may create multiple different Meta accounts. However, except between you and your child ages 10 to 12 for whom you have created an account, you may not share passwords or transfer your account to anyone else (without our permission).

But that’s the question, How legally enforceable is this and even then, Is meta actually giving green light for 10 to 12 year olds or are they not?

I am in the principle that people should make their own judgement so.

Source: Supplemental Meta Platforms Technologies Terms Of Service | Meta Quest

Edit: Oh yes they’re shifting responsibility in the ToS:

2.4. Your responsibility for your child’s use of a Meta account to access MPT Products. You are responsible for determining that your child is ready to use MPT Products, consistent with the Health and Safety Warnings (see 5.5.d). If your child is below 10 years of age or otherwise not ready to use MPT Products as determined by you, you must not create an account for them. You are responsible for the activities of your child when they use a Meta account to access MPT Products, and for their compliance with these Supplemental Terms. You are responsible for supervising your child’s access to and use of MPT Products. You are responsible for ensuring your child understands these Supplemental Terms as well as other Terms and Policies that may apply, such as the Code of Conduct for Virtual Experiences, and ensuring they understand how to behave and interact with others when accessing MPT Products.