Trial finds age assurance can be done, as social media ban deadline looms
Trial finds age assurance can be done, as social media ban deadline looms
A company contracted by the government to assess technologies for verifying the ages of online users says it can be done privately, robustly and effectively.
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Oh this again. I had forgotten about it. According to the bill's definition of "Social Media", we (aussie.zone) meet it. Which means we need to somehow adhere to whatever the government deems necessary to confirm our userbase's ages. Thing is: I can't see any instance outside the country caring about this law. Why should they?
I genuinely have no idea from a technical standpoint how you'd enforce this.
Which means we need to somehow adhere to whatever the government deems necessary to confirm our userbase’s ages
As I see it, you have three options.
- Adhere to the regulations, whatever the fuck they end up being (frustrating that we're halfway through the year and there's still no clear indication of what that is). Technologically, who knows, this may be more difficult than it's worth. It may expose the admins to liability in terms of privacy laws. May also involve a financial cost if 3rd-party providers are required.
- Reach out to MPs and Ministers to try and seek an exemption. If granted, probably the ideal case. If not granted, it puts you on their radar pretty explicitly.
- Try to fly under the radar. If they had any sense, the bill would have required the Minister to name social media platforms to which it applies, or at least have included an automatic exemption for platforms under a certain size (say, under 1000 MAU, what have we got? Not that, surely). In the absence of that, it's likely (though not certain) that realistically nobody in Government knows about this place and no police are going to bother investigating it. Opens up major risk if those assumptions end up being wrong.
I can’t see any instance outside the country caring about this law. Why should they?
It's the same as the EU when it creates legislation and says "if you have any European customers, even if they're not in Europe, you have to comply". It's bullshit, and they know it. They can't even enforce it on non-European companies that do provide a service to people in Europe. This will be enforced by the big guys with a global presence, and it'll kill off small social media in Australia, while small social media elsewhere will just choose to ignore it.
Adhere to the regulations, whatever the fuck they end up being
I'll send everyone a DM: "Hey, are you over 18? Yep? cool."
I have verified that all our users are over 18. 👍
New checkbox on the sign-up form. Works every time.
Get everybody to go buy a beer at their local bar. Then post a pic of their username, bar, and the beer. Age Verified by industry professionals.
At first I laughed, but in honesty I can’t think of many better verification methods.
My concern with it is the cost and requirement for non-drinkers to acquire alcohol. It’s pretty insensitive to ask a recovering alcoholic or a Muslim for example to go into a pub and buy a beer. Maybe have it as one possible verification method?
You could also get a a piece of paper notarised by a JP.
‘The individual known on Aussie.zone as Gorgritch_Umie_Killa has presented identification to me that demonstrates to my satisfaction that they are over 18’ (signed and stamped).But neither of these methods are technical solutions.
You joke, but remember the proposed UK porn age verification law? Where the verification would legally have to be done by going down to your local pub?
There are many floors to the beer plan, one of which i may hit, depending on how many different social media services i need to prove my age to...
That JP idea is actually good. Whats better it relies on a system that is already in place and has a high level of trust. A specific Social Media verification Government stipend would be needed for JP's though, as this would become a massive initial, and largish ongoing increase in demand for their services.
My problem is that for privacy reasons, I'm opposed to any system that requires giving information about the sites that you're visiting to anyone other than that site. It's not that I don't trust JPs, it's that I don't believe I should have to tell a JP that I use aussie.zone.
... I don’t believe I should have to tell a JP that I use aussie.zone.
I wasn't exactly proposing it as a solution, the amount of manual work it would generate to have millions of Australians going to JPs around the country with this for all their social media sites staggers the mind. But if it were to be implemented this way, I'm not really sure how to get around the issue of naming the explicit sites you visit. You don't want it to be a blank "this person is verified on every site", because that'll be abused by everyone (and their kids) on every site. There needs to be some sort of personalisation to the verification.
And before anyone proposes it: I have zero interest in you sending me your personal ID. We are not equipped to store that level of sensitive information, and this is a side-hobby. We don't take the site anywhere near seriously enough to take that sort of responsibility on.
We are not equipped to store that level of sensitive information
For what it's worth, the legislation seems pretty clear on this one point (despite being unbelievably unclear on just about every other point):
- Government-issued ID cannot be the only way a person is able to verify themselves
- If Government-issued ID is used, it cannot be stored past the length of time it takes to verify
How that's going to play out in practice is anybody's guess at this point.
If Government-issued ID is used, it cannot be stored past the length of time it takes to verify
That just reverses the circle of trust. If I can't trust the users not to lie about their age ("trust me, bro") in a DM, then the users can't trust me not to keep copies/sell their private information ("trust me, bro"). That's a super-flawed verification method.