By this I mean sites requiring stricter validation for accessing adult content, rather than just a simple checkbox. Stuff like credit card details or photos of government IDs.

This has been something that’s been rattling around in the back of my mind for a while now. And with the place I live passing legislation requiring porn sites to use stricter verification, it’s starting to feel like a real thing that can happen.

And… Honestly, it looks like this is probably going to start to be a thing everywhere, seeing how the world is going. To the point where VPNs are probably not going to stay a good way of bypassing it.

It’s causing me an unhealthy amount of worry, because of all the privacy implications and the fact that it means some sites could pull out of my country entirely.

I figure I may as well ask people’s thoughts and experiences here, rather than reading the same articles on Google over and over.

So, I guess some questions:

  • Have you done any of this kind of verification before? How did you find it? Do you trust them with your identity?
  • Would you consider sending images of your government ID to Discord/Google/Twitter/Bluesky/Furaffinity/esix to access adult content? They promise they use a third party verifier and delete it after use, of course.
  • What about using less “important” forms of ID, like phone numbers, credit card numbers and whatever AI face scanning technology is hot right now?
  • What about verifying for Yiffit and/or your favourite mastodon/lemmy servers? Presumably they’ll also defer to a third party verifier, but I feel they’ll try to go for a privacy focused one.

And let’s not talk too much about specific jurisdictions and whether or not they are “right” to do this kind of thing. Or if it’s going to be effective or not. I’m sure we all have thoughts about this, but that conversation isn’t likely to go anywhere.

@wander , if you have the time, I’d also be interested in hearing your thoughts on this, as a site operator. Especially considering France is one of the places trying to push this.

  • 稲荷大神の狐@yiffit.netEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    If children connecting and accessing porn websites is such a big problem, why don’t we teach parents how to block them in their router? Instead of funding a company that verifies people’s age, the governments could fund the creation of a constantly updated domain blocklist for those pages, and there would be no security or privacy implications.

    Don’t get me wrong, I am in full agreement with you on the fact we should trust no one online to send our ID’s in to be verified. The idea is absolutely criminal and reckless. I don’t care if it is being done through a third party that merely gives you a token to access naughty sites.

    It’s all an abuse of power and should be cut off like a cancerous tumor.

    But the problems with teaching parents to use a router means you will be limiting them down to one brand of router because every other brand has a slightly different interface. Or we introduce regulations to have a standardized interface across all routers.

    And if it is anything like the old apple airport routers or even the Google Wifi or Google Nest routers you need a specific app installed to access their features and functionality.

    I am not sure how it is in Europe or the UK, but in the US, not many parents are not technically inclined and not willing to go digging deeper into their router settings or look up ways to use the router to full effect to better shield their own kids from things like pornography.

    All that most people know is that router goes burrr and that is it.

    They look towards more technically inclined people to help them fix their computers, setup Plex, and maybe setup domain Blocklist if they have been informed about it.

    Most people do not want a class teaching them how to use a router to shield their kids from things like pornography. They want the simple and easy solution like a Token system since it takes all the work of protecting their kids off their shoulders.

    It makes governments like the US happy because many parents are lazy, they do not want to really raise their kid, so politicians will introduce laws like this because “it is to protect the children!”

    A dog whistle I am all to sick of hearing…

    • black0utEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Sadly, I agree with you. Most parents don’t know how to configure routers or networks.

      It’s sad to see, because that was the strategy of big internet corporations. Dumb down the complicated process of using the internet, create proprietary solutions that “just work” and teach people that they don’t need to know what they’re doing anymore, that experts will take care of it.

      And while it was great and brought the mass adoption of the internet, it also created a generation that uses everything while knowing very little. It’s not only routers or network stuff. I’ve met people who use Windows daily and didn’t know how to install an app or even use the file explorer (they just dropped everything on their desktop). Some people don’t even know the difference between the internet and Google.

      But these companies and corporations should be limited. There shouldn’t be any product that, after purchasing it, you need to download an app in order to use. There shouldn’t be any router that purposefully slightly changes GUIs so people are stuck with that brand. Governments should start doing something about it, but most people in power don’t understand technology either.

      And by the way the internet is evolving, privacy will soon be almost impossible to have. You need to give X corporation your data in order to create a user account on your computer, you need to upload your ID to every webaite who asks, you need to have your phone tapped in order to use your washing machine…

      I know it’s a very pessimistic point of view, it’s just a little rambling on my thoughts on the web. But it really feels like the web is devolving lately, specially with Google’s DRM, Manifest V3, Microsoft’s ads in Windows or Apple’s walled garden.

      I don’t want to give up my privacy everytime I connect to the internet, and for now I’ve at least had the option to choose. But if governments start implementing measures like these, I can’t really choose an alternetive, it’s either no social media and limited internet or give up my info to a 3rd party.

      I’ve already accepted that I’ll have to trust some government agency or third party company in order to verify I’m a human or that I’m 18+. But it feels like I’m losing something, not like I’ve contributed to the security of the net.