The motives are irrelevant. This will destroy the internet as we know it and disempower citizens. I can't help but wonder if the empowerment LLMs may have to an individual is terrifying leaders into an authoritarian mindset, finally demanding to be able to know and track what we do online, everywhere we do it. This is about protecting their ability to rule, not children from harm.
I can't help but wonder if the empowerment LLMs may have to an individual is terrifying leaders into an authoritarian mindset
LLMs are here to enrich the rich, not to "empower the individual". They require ridiculously expensive computing power, which makes them impractical or even impossible to self-host (with data centers buying up the market, the required hardware becomes unaffordable to the individual). Now you're at the mercy of renting out the compute from the oligarchs and their companies, and you're also relying on their censored and biased models (see Grok and his "Mecha-Hitler" antics if you want a taste of the future). Please don't expect that to empower you, or anyone else. It can't, and even if it could, it wouldn't be available to you.
Unless we democratise LLMs, they'll just become yet another tool of enslavement in the clutches of the Epstein class.
From my understanding this age verification app seems to be based on the age verification blueprint they have been working on for a while now, which is supposed to be part of the European "digital wallet"
https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/eu-age-verification
From my understanding it works as follows:
This solution does seemingly address my two greatest concern with online age verficiation:
Assuming that this blueprint is followed, it seems like a decent approach at online age verification.
I get why this sounds better than websites directly collecting IDs, but I think it still understates the problem. Even if the site only sees “18+”, the system still begins with strong identity proofing somewhere upstream. So this is not really anonymous access, it is identity-based access with a privacy layer on top.
The bigger issue is centralization. You still need trusted issuers, approved apps, approved standards, and authorities deciding who can participate. That means users are being asked to trust a centralized framework not to expand, not to abuse its power, and not to fail. History gives us no reason to be relaxed about that.
I am also skeptical of the privacy promises. These systems are always presented in their ideal form, but real-world implementations involve metadata, logging, renewal, compliance rules, vendors, and future policy changes. “The website does not know who you are” is only one small part of the privacy question.
So even in the best-case version, this is still dangerous because it normalizes the idea that access to lawful online content should depend on credentials issued inside a centrally governed identity ecosystem. Today it is age verification. Tomorrow it is broader permissioned access to the internet. That is why I do not see this as a decent compromise, but as infrastructure for future control.
I do see your concerns as valid. But at least in my country, we already have all of that.
I have an app I use to id myself to all sorts of stuff. Almost all of us has that. All the changes you mention are not changes, we have already had that for years. The new thing is that you don't give your id to the website.
Just like during the pandemic, we had an app to prove our vaccination status, without revealing id. Before that we had to prove id, and then they looked up vaccination status.
Also once they get their foot in the door, they can remove the privacy next time they want to unmask someone online saying "I support Palestine action"
The big problem is the trustworthiness of that central authority to maintain the confidentiality of your information, and to not use it for other purposes.
Which they of course will not.
Hi. This system doesn't have the cryptographic properties that you think it does. The authority could keep a map between tokens and real IDs. They just say they don't.
This is the intelligent non-invasive way to implement this. Basically using a similar cryptographic signing scheme as SSL certificates. We've known how to do this for decades.
We should not care about verifying age.
but whose the "central authority" that you have to provide your ID to? and what happens when that central authority inevitably gets hacked?
bad title, this isnt about protecting kids online
this isnt about protecting kids online
It never is, but they always try to sell unpopular things as "protecting the kids".
How about being a fucking parent instead of letting the government do it?
The government isn't doing shit except censorship and mass data surveillance. This has less than nothing to do with kids.
What if the kid's parents let them be pro Palestine? Can't let parent's risk defense contractor's profits
Welp, this was bound to happen, wasn't it? I'm pretty sure they're referring to this application, which I stumbled upon a while back. If I remember correctly, the app "allows" (or implicitly forces) the user to store a government issued identity: able to attest to an age-restricted website, whether or not the user is of age.
It does this, supposedly by "just" sharing an age-bracket with the website; but here's the kicker: the Union, in its generosity, has granted their citizens an in-app option, to withdraw this signal from the websites it has been provided to. What this means in practice, is the app storing one's government-issued identify, also ties back to every account requiring "age-verification"...
So now, every device containing the app, has the owner's government-issued identify on it, together with connections to every age-restricted service. And considering the apps are maintained by the Union, or member states (through their own implementations), creating a backdoor to the application's contents... I mean to "observe app usage", would be absolutely trivial.
Again, I've read it a while back, so some things might've changed, and my memory might be spotty; but I'm quite sure it's along the lines I've described.
Lotta internet users are going to suddenly be from outside the EU, just like the UK population suddenly all moved to the Netherlands after their own version of this.
Oh this sounds good........ I missed reading the following essential requirements
Ewww gross. Fuck age verification
Democracies: Hey we have to stop the onslaught of right wing populism
Also Democracies: Let's push moral policies that right wing populists thrive on.
I don't use apps from official software installation sources. I will boycott any site or service that asks me for unnecessary information.
to moniter political dissidents against the right wing to be exact, and may track women as well.
Sure nothing wrong can result from that. /s
Wrong. This is to violate everyone's rights and target children. This is fucking abhorrent and needs to be stopped.
If they are so dead set on protecting children, I suggest starting with:
Gaza Strip and the West Bank (Palestine) Ukraine Sudan Myanmar Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Syria Yemen Ethiopia Afghanistan Haiti Niger Mali Burkina Faso
Zuzks wallet will do just fine in the mean time
Can we stop pretend they give a single fuck about kids?
Edit: poor choice of words. Thats the only thing they give kids.
https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2044718576485953536/vid/avc1/996x2160/hyLmEHaGr6DltAA6.mp4
Apparently it's already exposing sensitive user data and can be bypassed.
Don't give palantir your biometrics
People keep saying that they verify your age at the super market and I keep trying to remember the last time that happened to me and I just cannot. Nor, for that matter, at bars or coffee shops (for after lunch chat chilling before returning for the afternoon stint).
It may just be my corner of the European Union being much more lax than others.
I'm sorry you look so old. I do too, I basically never get carded, and really never did. My friend that's actually a year older than me still gets carded every single time, and he's 36.
It will help the pedophile class and Israeli backed oligarchs mass surveil us more effectively
Unless I'm reading this incorrectly, this seems far more invasive than the California law.
🤦♂️
Fucking cunts won't stop. Next, it's gonna be chat control 3.0 again.
Who do we need to send to the guillotine?
I get my porn from illegal download sites that aren't interested in age-verification.
Like all Prohibition Policies, this is only going to push people toward more illegal outlets, which demonstrate more morality than the legal ones.
Gaaaarbaaaaage.
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