FYI Regarding Discord! Discord to require ID and age verification using government issued IDs.
- Thread starter JCitron
- Start date
It is not just Discord (which I do not use) but virtually all social media here now requires age verification. Australia is the first jurisdiction to impose a minimum age limit of 16 years on social media. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, Twitch, X, YouTube, Kick and Reddit, are in the ban with more being added.
Details are at www.esafety.gov.au/.../social-media-age-restrictions
There are those who see this as an attack on "free speech" with privacy implications, as covered in that "weirdo" video clip, while others see it as a long overdue child safety and protection issue. I am in the latter camp - age restrictions exist for movies, voting in elections, drinking in public bars, driving vehicles, etc, where userID or some sort of visual age verification (including use of the "Mark 1 eye-ball" by an employee at the entrance) is required.
It is how the information is stored and used that does concern me. During the last few days here in Oz there has been a breaking news story about a private contractor responsible for digitizing court transcripts (often containing a great deal of personal, legally protected and security information such as the identity of protected witnesses) had sub contracted the work to overseas operators without obtaining any approval from the courts.
Data breaches in general are now almost routine these days and perhaps part of the price we pay for the conveniences of the "digital age". Age or identity verification may be another price.
My opinions.
Details are at www.esafety.gov.au/.../social-media-age-restrictions
There are those who see this as an attack on "free speech" with privacy implications, as covered in that "weirdo" video clip, while others see it as a long overdue child safety and protection issue. I am in the latter camp - age restrictions exist for movies, voting in elections, drinking in public bars, driving vehicles, etc, where userID or some sort of visual age verification (including use of the "Mark 1 eye-ball" by an employee at the entrance) is required.
It is how the information is stored and used that does concern me. During the last few days here in Oz there has been a breaking news story about a private contractor responsible for digitizing court transcripts (often containing a great deal of personal, legally protected and security information such as the identity of protected witnesses) had sub contracted the work to overseas operators without obtaining any approval from the courts.
Data breaches in general are now almost routine these days and perhaps part of the price we pay for the conveniences of the "digital age". Age or identity verification may be another price.
My opinions.
Last edited:
I agree, age verification should be part of the equation, but the people behind this with Discord are in it for other reasons including for political persecution and prosecution of citizens. There have already been a few incidents of data breaches of this information and the fact that we have to upload facial images and government-issued IDs means that this information is ripe for harvesting, or more like for sale to the highest bidder. Having access to our face and IDs means that the information can be manipulated and more so in this day and age with AI tools.
With the requirement of government-issued IDs, I draw the line and I will terminate my Discord account and any other service that requires that.
What annoys me is, at least in the UK, is that when there is a data breach we are told...oops sorry but live with it and oh by the way please change your password. That's not good enough.
Yep, he is definitely a weirdo.
I don't know if he mentioned that the ID is just for creating an account although if the system sees childish behavior then it might require proof of age. I guess it will clean out all the trolls from the Trainz server at least. They did mention that if you visit discord servers that have adult content it will assume you to be an adult. I guess they have never met a 13 year old boy.joebernard
Member
nothing new
Here in Spain our government is trying to do a similar thing on Social media. idk how they will do it, but, My guess is that they will do a similar thing to the UK and Australia. Let's see how it goes, and I hope not to do the same as @JCitron on all my social media.
A simple way to verify age would be to request details of a credit card (which are only meant to be issued to over-18s). Instead, requiring people to upload sensitive biometric data (such as a facial image) to unknown third parties is a cyber-security disaster in the making. How soon before there's a major data leak associated with one of these age-verification systems? Then let the identity theft begin!
Well, based upon a recent news story, one possible method could be based on reading comprehension skills. The story featured the results of a study that concluded that less than 10% of teenagers had sufficient skills to read the first 8 paragraphs of Dickens' Bleak House and then be able to answer questions about the material.
I like that.
That should shock me but as a retired teacher it does not surprise me! I have never read Bleak House so I do not know if I would pass that test either (the title is off putting enough).
One could easily blame "screen time" for this result and I have no doubt that many people will, especially politicians, because it is an easy scapegoat. But advances in technology that give more people access to more information ("disinformation" is another matter) have always been criticised. I am old enough to remember the arrival of TV and the predictions that it will "ruin" society. I am not old enough to remember the arrival of paperback novels (late 1890s) and the predictions that they will "corrupt" the young.
I always enjoy the "street interview" segments of Jimmy Kimmels late night show where random adults on a street are presented with an unmarked map of the world and asked to locate various countries and even continents. The failures (almost 100%) are often hilarious - even to the point where some could not correctly locate the USA. The one that I remember the most was a young boy (I would guess about 14-15yo) who was able to point to and correctly identify all the countries of SE Asia.
My nephew, now about 26, was staying with us one summer and opined loudly that he was bored. He's a smart kid and we have tons of books on animation, computer animation, and 3d modeling in addition to hundreds of books on many subjects. With his interest in 3d modeling and animation, and also in claymation where figures made of clay are moved one frame at a time, we mentioned the books on animation.
He proclaimed that he doesn't read because books are boring, besides he said all that stuff can be found on YouTube. With household of computers and plenty of network speed, I said go find it on YouTube.
He proclaimed that he doesn't read because books are boring, besides he said all that stuff can be found on YouTube. With household of computers and plenty of network speed, I said go find it on YouTube.